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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23401435">Forever By My Side</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLovelyStarlight/pseuds/TheLovelyStarlight'>TheLovelyStarlight</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Steven Universe (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Betrayal, Borderline Personality Disorder, Boys Kissing, Dark, Developing Relationship, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff before the bad, Hospitals, M/M, Master/Servant, Mental Breakdown, Mind Manipulation, Obsessive Behavior, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Possessive Behavior, Self-cest, Slow Burn, Stevencest - Freeform, Temporary Amnesia, Uncomfortable Undertones, Unhealthy Relationships, Yandere</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 06:13:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>49,373</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23401435</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLovelyStarlight/pseuds/TheLovelyStarlight</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The giant injector came crashing landing on his home, it's pink poison now slowly killing his planet. Along with it a crazy revengeful gem looking to destroy the very thing Pink diamond cared about in the whole universe, her son. She sung her heart out, swung her scythe, pulled back to take the finally killing blow to all three of the crystal gems. She wasn't fast enough, but she did hit a target, one that ended up being faster than her.</p><p>She swung, and hit the hybrid prince right from his neck and down to his gem, hitting right at the sparkling pink gemstone. The impact removed the diamond right from his body. The gem who attacked and the Crystal Gems themselves watched in horror as the reaction of the force removal and the rejuvenator made the boy give out a bone chilling scream. </p><p>When things can back, when things stopped being black, a young boy groaned and sat up from a sofa an unfamiliar room, seeing unfamiliar faces filled with confusing concern. He turned, gasped, as his brown eyes met pink diamond pupils. </p><p>The pink being whispered softly, "S...Steven..."</p><p>The boy reached a hand out to him as he called out happily the only name that came to his mind. "Pink!"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe, Pink Steven Universe/Steven Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>69</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>406</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Awoke Pain</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>It was faint, subtle and light, it left a small trail behind but slipped through his hands like water in a moving stream. The time, the place, the faces, and the voices were there but going as quickly as he caught them. They slipped, then came but slipped again. The stream dying up, but the feeling still lingering.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The feeling... was non stop pain.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Pain. That's all that was left even when the rest all slipped from him. It was hot, knife stabbing, and melting metal like pain. It attacked at his throat, slashing down to his stomach in such a quick motion that the once colorworld turned black, but so slow that he felt every little contact as if fire exploded under his skin. He tried to scream, but the pain in his throat cut off his voice before it could even slip out, the fire strangling him as if the creature had hands. The fire spread and with it the water from the stream was dissolving and fuzzing out of him. He felt empty, cold, but yet couldn't stop his screams from within as the hot burning pain filled that stream after the water faded away. The pain spread like fire as well, moving from the hold it had on his neck to his shoulders, arms, body, legs, all the over to the point where he felt like it had emglufted him in white and pink blinding light. It tore at him, the fire hands turning sharp as it tore at his very flesh and bones. It was pulling at him from everywhere and left nothing else behind. He felt his energy he once had leave him, he felt like his body was finally burning and slowly dying from the inside out. Nothing else was there, nothing. None of the water survived, none of the normal colors of the large world, nothing but fire, white, and pink.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Once the fire was done with his body, it attacked from deeper within. It went up to his head, the pain now turning into lava as he finally let his bleeding throat scream in torture. It hurt. It hurt so much. Why was it attacking there? It already destroyed the stream, it vanished the connection, the piece that was within was gone. Yet it still kept attacking his very soul. He screamed louder and louder, his throat feeling raw but nothing compared to the lava in his head. It was too much, filling too much, it was going to leak out of his eyes if it kept going. He wanted it to stop. He wanted everyone to stop. Forget the stream, forget what he lost. He just wants the pain gone. Gone! Gone! Gone!</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The pain stopped, the lava cooled, and his world now before dark. Nothing was there, no stream, no faces or voices. There was nothing. It made the boy want to smile.</em>
</p><p>Then the empty blackness faded, and the colors from before came back slowly. The colors swimmed around, swirling and spinning a bit to the point where he wanted it to stop moving all together. Did the colors all use to do that?</p><p>"... Look, he's waking up..."</p><p>He groaned, hearing voices now which helped the colors stop moving but start a swimming flood feeling now in his head. It kind of hurt just to move, like his body was suddenly very heavy. Strange, was it always like that? Ignoring the aching feeling in his joints, the boy slowly moved to sit up from the couch, rubbing his eyes to try and stop the spinning that was slowing down. He heard more voices, sounding like whispers of some sort. Were other people inside with him? Where was even here?</p><p>"Take it easy... You don't need to get up..."</p><p>He groaned again, pushing whatever was trying to touch him out of his way. The throbbing in his head was now down to a small little poke behind his eyes, he was able to open them to see where he was at. It was a house, a very strange house but a house none of the less. It looked to be a living room as well. Brown hardwood flooring and walls, a coffee table littered with rags, bowls, and cups of ice water. He also saw a weird pink ciniclar next to the cup of water, it gleamed in the sunlight. He frowned at it since he had never seen anything like it before. It looked like a very thick pen or something. The boy then looked down at his lap, seeing that he had a light blue blanket over the lower half of his body. He was on a massive corner shaped couch, white and very soft and comfortable. It was strange, cause he knew what this stuff was, but he had questions as to why he even was sleeping on a couch. Wouldn't it be better to sleep in a bed?</p><p>He tipped his head, looking now at his hands and his body a bit more. The boy frowned at his fingers, curling and uncurling them in his line of view. Nails were filled with a bit of burn and what looked to be grass. Sine when did he pull at the grass? Was he playing in the dirt or something? His hands were slightly trembling too, deadly pale in nature as well. His whole body felt kind of weak and trembling slightly. Why was everything aching so much? Then he saw the light blue shirt he was wearing, pulling at it a bit to take a look at what the yellow shape was. It was a star. Cool, but he didn't know that he liked stars like that on his clothing. Was this even his clothes? He rubbed his hands against his pants, feeling the texture to be jeans, they looked to be dark blue as well. The knee part of them felt wet though and he saw that it was covered in grass stains as well. He checked his toes, pale like his arms but had a lighter shade to them between the big toes and index toe, like he was wearing slippers of some sort before. He touched his face, warm but calmly. Then his hair, curly and slightly damp as well, he even pulled a bit at it to see it was brown. He then pulled up his shirt, curiosity filling his being on what else he could find.</p><p>Nothing. There was nothing on his stomach. It was completely bare and just as pale and calmly as the rest of his skin was. Somehow, seeing his bare stomach only made him frown. That... didn't look right.</p><p>"...Are you okay?"</p><p>He flinched, finally looking up to see that there was a face in front of him. The boy couldn't find it in him to say anything, just tense in shock. She was so close to his face, her skin even whiter and paler than his own. He looked into her soft blue eyes only to seem them filled with concern. Her hair was a soft peach color that looked to be a bit of a mess, but fell over the side of her face so gracefully that it didn't look so bad on her. She also had a very long and pointy nose, the bottom of it slightly pink as if she was sick. He tipped his head though at her frown and worried look, not understanding a lady was looking at him like that. He also noticed that there was a big stone in the middle of her forehead which was weird, but he couldn't help but feel like that was supposed to be there.</p><p>She spoke again, her voice shaky, he realized. "S-Steven, what's wrong?"</p><p>What... Who was that?</p><p>The boy just frowned in deep confusion, looking at this lady as if she was really sick or something. He turned away from her, getting slightly uncomfortable to see that there were four more people in the room with them. That was good, he could ask them if she was sick or anything, but stopped when he saw them caring the same look of deep concern as her. What was with that? He saw that two of them looked a bit like her with their oddly placed gemstones. The closest one was green, as in green skin. She had light green skin and even lighter yellow triangle hair, her lime color eyes were red and puffy like she had been crying. She was hugging a table to her chest as she was going to have a heart attack. Her three corner gem on her forehead like the lady in fron to him. The other one was purple in skin tone. What's with the different rainbow skin tone? She even had purplish silver hair and bright lavender eyes filled with the same concern and even fear. He even saw her chest on her chest, purple like the rest of her. He then saw the other two. One looked to be a young girl around his age, or at least his height. She had short brown hair and a darker skin tone then his own, like milk chocolate in a sense. Her nose and eyes were even worse than the other three, her eyes still leaking tears as her hands came to cover her trembling mouth. The last was an old man, long grey brown hair and unfit in a way. He looked like he had been crying too, eyes concerned but filled with hope despite the others.</p><p>Why... Why were they crying so much? Why are they looking at him like that? What was even going with these guys?</p><p>"S-Steven..." The lady in front of him spoke again, her eyes watering in as her skinny body shook. Almost too skinny really. "P-Please... Please say something to us."</p><p>He just gave her a look of deep confusion, even a bit displeasure for her being so close. He opened his mouth, his tone filled with nothing but confusion. "Do I know you?"</p><p>Okay maybe that was a bit too harsh, but the boy really wanted to know. He didn't think that his question would cause all five of them to pale like ghosts drawn on a sheet of paper. The blue eyed lady just squeaked and looked ready to pass out, her hands moving to cover her mouth as if she was going to sob or scream if she removed them. The green short one just took a step back in shock, gasping as she dropped her tablet and it landed on the ground with a glass like crack. The purple one just made her eyes grow even wider, her head slowly heading as if in denial of what she just heard. The girl and old man just looked to have pale the most, their bodies tense as if they had become statues. It made him feel very uncomfortable. He hoped one of them at least answered. Who were they? Should he even know who they all are or something? The silence was driving him mad, the young teen began to shift in his seat on the couch.</p><p>"W-Why..." The purple lady asked shakingly, looking as if she wanted to yell but was holding back as best as she could. It made him frown. "What do you mean? S-Steven... d-don't you know us?"</p><p>The boy shook his head, blushing in a bit of embarrassment. "No. Can't say that I do know you," He said softly, frowning as he scratched his head. "And who is Steven? Honestly I have no idea who you are talking about."</p><p>The white skinned lady whimpered, backing up as she now started to shake madly. Tears falling from her eyes as he heard her whisper a small, "N-No...."</p><p>"W-What... what happened to him," It was the young girl now and she was crying too, but her face showed more panic as she whipped her head around to face the green skin lady. "I-I thought you said that the thing doesn't hurt humans!?"</p><p>"I-It doesn't, but he's not fully human," The green lady squeaked out rapidly, picking up her tablet to tap on it frantically.</p><p>"You said the rejuvenator resets gems! He's still a teen though," The girl continued to scream again, this time the panic turning to anger.</p><p>Green lady was crying not, grabbing her hair as if the screaming and stress was getting to her. "I'm only going by what Bismuth told me Connie! I'm only an era 2 ge-"</p><p>"Don't yell at her Connie," the purple woman stepped forward to snap at the girl. Her eyes clearly show irritation. "She's trying her best!"</p><p>She was sobbing at this point, all of them where. "But he doesn't remember us!!"</p><p>"Guys stop!" The old man got all four of them to turn towards him, crying but looking very worried. "Y-You're... you're scaring him."</p><p>The rest turned back to a young sixteen year old boy trembling on the couch, his eyes wide in shock and fear at the group as his hands clenched hard on the blanket in his lap. He looked so scared, so terrified of them it was like they were staring at a whole different person. Like they were staring at a small and frightened child surrounded by strangers. It caused all of them to choke up and stop yelling right away, but their tears kept flowing out in big streams. The boy just tried to sink into the couch, not knowing what to do with himself right now. It was clear that he had no idea what they were talking about, but it was like they knew him or something. They called him Steven, but who even was that. He wasn't Steven, right? The name felt familiar to him, like something very distant and yet maybe too reaching out there, but it also felt strange and bitter in tone. It didn't sound right coming from him, calling him by that name. He wasn't that name, but then... who was he?</p><p>He then realized something; he didn't know how to answer that. He frowned deeply, groaning as he gripped his head in pain. The others turned to look at him, but he ignored their cries, calling by a name that wasn't even his. His head hurt so bad now, the thumping coming back at full force when he started waking up. He let out a shout of pain, feeling it spike and cloud his vision. Stop! Stop calling him by such a stupid name. He wasn't Steven, he didn't know these people, and why did he feel so hollow that it was like his stomach was completely empty.</p><p>Then he felt it, the fire from his dreams. The pain that was lingering to be a distance memory. It came back full force, making him scream out in utter pain as he started to fracly get away from everything. The lava metal in his head, the glowing white and pink fire hands reaching out to grab hold of his already hot skin. It hurt, it hurt. Why was everything hurting again!? Why did trying to remember something as simple as a name bring him such pain. It hurt so much, the hot metal in his brain was filling up and overflowing everywhere. It burned. It burned! The boy felt himself choking as he started to claw at his face, the voices from the others now screaming over his screaming. He didn't care though, he just wanted to lava out of his damn skull. It was burning so badly he wanted to die right then and there. Someone just make it stop, make the metal fire pain leave him alone.</p><p>Then he felt the fire, hands grabbing him, shaking him and trying to pull his hands away from his face, was quickly removed to be replaced by one gentle hand on his cheek. The boy gasped, feeling the cool humming energy coming from the hand. It was pink, glowing gently as it faded away the fire of white and magenta. It moved gently under his hot stinging cheek, back hand as it stroked its knuckles over the surface. The action made the pain fad, the metal leak out of his head like cooling water. His chest moved a bit more evenly, his throat raw but the screaming coming to a halt as panting was left in its wake. He sat completely still, no longer tense but still still as if the hand would leave if he moved. Another hand came to his face, another pink glowing hand. They were so soft and it was like they were seeping it's glow into his skin, making them hot and vibrating. He hummed, leaning a bit into the hands as their hold grew a bit more firm. His vision was clearing and the voices from before were fading away, all that was left was the alluring hands and the soft glow they brought. He stayed like that, in the gentle hold as the right hand continued to stroke his cheek in the same slow rhythm till he finally left himself open his eyes once more.</p><p>What he saw was the most beautiful person he believed he had ever seen in his life. He was positively glowing, both figuratively and literally. The person before him was completely glowing bright gentle pink from the tip of his hair to his sandaled toes. He was in almost the same attire as the boy was, but his clothing was nothing more than darker shades of pinks with no star in the center of his shirt, but instead a black four sided diamond. His face though is what drew the boy closer to the being before him. He looked so angelic but also so powerful and stoic. He wasn't a smile or a face of concern like the others he saw before this being. His face showed calmness and almost drone of emotion. There wasn't much to his face, as it seemed to mix between baby cute to handsome firmness as well. His hair was bright pink and super curly as well, but each curl looked like they were that of roses and each side of his face was more of a swirl to them somehow completely the grande like look of his hair. It was the eyes though that destroyed most of the stoic look of his face. His eyes showed so much more than the blankness on his face, but rather filled with wonder and awe. They were filled with curiosity just like the boy's were as well. The pink irises and white diamond like pupils almost bring the boy deeper into the being's trance.</p><p>The being then opened his mouth, his tongue moving fluently to say in a soft whisper. "Better... safe..."</p><p>The boy shivered in delight at the sound of his voice, a small red hue coming to his face as he nodded. He felt safe with this being holding him like this, safe and content. He wanted to be closer to him, hold him tight and never let him go. The calmness became something deeper, almost like a hungry need to cling to this person and never let go. It was a tug, a rope or magnet pulling them closer. He felt it too. The boy knew that he felt it just as badly as he did. As he kept staring into his diamond eyes, it was like something was slowly clicking into place, something coming to the surface that was now just bubbling up from his throat. He couldn't stop it. As he kept on staring at this wonderful being before him he couldn't help but let the feeling come right out; a memory finallying pushing into the right key slot.</p><p>"Pink." it was a name. That's what was in his mind that finally clicked into place. He saw the being before him gasp and his eyes widened suddenly in shock, but he just smiled more at the name slipping out his mouth. It felt so right, so sweet and perfect for the being before him. He said it again, practically cooing. "Pink~... My Pink!"</p><p>The being, he was calling Pink now, just kept looking at him in shock as the boy grinned brightly and moved to pull the pink teen into a bear hug. Pink just stayed there, not moving at first as he let his counterpart cling to him so tightly. It felt nice to the diamond, he almost didn't want the other to let go, but he knew that something was wrong with his human half. He hasn't acted like himself since he woke up. He treated the gems, Connie, and even their own father as if they were strangers or a threat. Even if it wasn't for the fact that he remembered them as friends, the diamond half would have gotten rid of them. He acted like he did though. Something was very wrong with his counterpart, something was damaged and he needed to fix it.</p><p>Pink slowly placed his hands on the other, feeling the warmth and vibrating chill from before running through his body. His other half humming in delight as he clinged a bit more. This felt so nice, and he only wanted to be closer. "S...Steven..." There was no other name for his other half. It felt right to say it.</p><p>The boy was still unsure of the name, but it sounded so different when Pink said it so he let it slide. He lifted his head and smiled at the being. "Yes Pink?"</p><p>"Do... Do you remember me," Pink asked slowly, cupping his other's cheek as he made sure their eyes wouldn't break contact.</p><p>The boy, Steven, only seemed to grin as his eyes shined brightly. They didn't shine like stars like they used to though. "You're Pink. My... something," He said slowly, as if trying to remember what they meant. "My Pink, something important to me. My... My Diamond."</p><p>"What the fuck is happening!!?"</p><p>The two boys jumped and turned to see the other four still standing around them, having seen everything. Pink, knowing who the one shouted was Amethyst, just gave her a blank stare as he held his other half closer to his chest. She looked at the two as if they had shattered their only gem and was slowly decaying in under three minutes. Pearl looked dreadfully worried and still very pale at what she was seeing as well. Both Connie and Peridot looked deeply confused and a bit uneasy with what they were looking at, trying to understand the touches they just saw to calm the human teen down. Greg, Steven's father, looked just conflicted on what to say or what to do. He knew why they were upset though. Steven was whole, Steven was weird yes but this was something none of them had ever seen before. They were unsure on what to do and were freaking out, but it wasn't enough for Pink to care. Even though he knew who they were, his human half didn't and obviously was scared of them. It was like an instinct to protect his half, even if it was against his family.</p><p>Pink slowly pet Steven's soft curly hair, humming a bit as he realized that he liked doing this a lot. "Steven..." He whispered as the young teen looked up at him with his bright eyes, showing that he had the boy's full attention. "Do you know who they are?"</p><p>Steven frowned, taking a glance at the five still surrounding them with concern and still hopeful looks in their desperate eyes. He took a moment to look at every face, only to frown more as his mind drew blank. The human half shook his head, answering honestly. "No... I don't know them. Who are they Pink?"</p><p>The teen then realized that something he said was making the white gem flinch and very upset at this point, and she seemed to have snapped. "What do you mean!? We're your-"</p><p>"She is Pearl," Pink pointed at the white gem, cutting her off with a small gaze that simply said 'shut up'. She tensed but the glowing diamond figure didn't care and pointed to the next gem who stood next to her. "That is Amethyst, the green one is Peridot, the human girl is Connie..." He then took a look at the old man, pointing at him with a much softer tone. "And that is Greg... your father."</p><p>The last part made Steven gasp, looking over at the man again to take a much longer look at him. The others do the same, wondering how Greg would take this information and use it to his advantage. Instead, the man just swallowed the lump in his throat and chuckled nervously. "H-Hey Stew-ball..."</p><p>The human half made a look of distaste at the nickname, feeling in his gut that it didn't sound right to him. It sounded like it was for someone. He smiled nervously and nodded. "Hello Gre-um... Father..." He flinched at the name, seeing many of them carrying frowns of deep sorrow.</p><p>Suddenly things were clicking and Steven looked up at Pink. "Something is wrong with me... isn't there?" Pink frowned a bit, nodding as he continued to pet his half's hair once more, looking at the others to see what they would do next.</p><p>Peridot looked down at the closed rejuvenator and sighed. "We're going to need to talk to the others about this."</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Seen Damage</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Garnet tipped her shades, the light in the room reflecting against them as she took another long three minute stare at the two Steven halves still sitting on the couch. The others were either sitting or standing a bit of ways from the two on the couch, with Greg being the only one sitting on the cough but on the far end as moving closer made the two versions of his son feel unease. Amethyst was the next closest, sitting on the coffee table while Peridot was typing on her teblet standing next to her, both looking very nervous. Pearl was standing next to Garnet, still pale and very stressed out. Connie stood next to the Bismuth and crossed her arms, looking at the two with mild confusion. Lapis was standing closer to the door, hugging her arms close as she glared at the pink being a bit who was holding their Steven. As for the diamond half, which Steven called Pink, was sitting on the couch with practically his half human in his lap and stroking his head as if he was a pet. It was odd to look at, and it didn’t seem like Steven missed either, more so even leaning into it.</p><p>Okay, so the fusion nodded and then shrugged at the group. “I got nothing.”</p><p>The whole group, besides the two on the couch, looked at Garnet with shocked eyes. Pearl breaking the silence with a question everyone was thinking. “How can you have nothing?”</p><p>Lapis stepped forward and frowned deeply. “There has to be something to fix all of…” She waved at Pink still petting and holding his human half close, her face twisting into disgust. “This!”</p><p>“As far as I can tell, when that gem attacked-” Garnet tried explaining, but was cut off by Pink as he growled and stated loudly, “Spinel.”</p><p>The fusion turned to the gem Steven half, frowning a bit in confusion. She crossed her arms and asked, “What was that Stev-”</p><p>Now it was the human half, Steven as Pink now calls him, who snapped at the tall lady. “He said her name is Spinel,” He frowned, his tone filled with annoyance that even shocked the lady before him. “And his name is Pink Diamond. Stop calling him that stupid name.”</p><p>“Steven isn’t stupid,” Connie barked out, feeling tears of frustration and sadness well up in her eyes.</p><p>Steven looked at her unamused and just rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. “Doesn't matter. That’s not our name. We aren’t Steven or whoever you’re talking about.”</p><p>“But you are Steven,” Amethyst groaned in frustration and anger, grasping at her hair to try and stop her panicking until Bismuth sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder.</p><p>The craft gem just shook her head and said, “It’s no use guys. When he was attacked by the rejuvenator, it reseted him in a way that gems are. His memories seem to have been completely wiped clean.”</p><p>Peridot though just looked confused at this information and asked, “But then how come Ste-'' She saw the human Steven glare and she swallowed loudly. “I-I mean Pink… remembers us? If the rjuvenator works on reseting a gem, then shouldn’t he be reseted back to… Rose or Pink Diamond?”</p><p>Even Connie knew that question was the wrong one to say out loud. She turned to look at the two Stevens, seeing the gem version tense and looking at the green gem as if wanting to do something to her. He held onto his human half tighter, while Steven just looked confused and not fully understanding what was happening. The others talked more about what could be happening to him, but the young sword fighter just watched the two to see how they were reacting to all of this.</p><p>Pink knew Connie was watching, but he didn’t care. He found himself not really caring about a lot of things he thinks he should care about. After all, he was a part of Steven, a piece that made the whole prefect being. It didn’t matter what his human half said about him not being Steven. It was clear that his human half was badly damaged and missing his memories, so he wasn’t thinking clearly. Still, the diamond half was confused as to what his feelings were about all of this. It was clear that from the first separation that he wasn’t the half to have most emotions. He was the power, the strength, the one to take all of the pain of Steven's world and keep it within. He was the healer, the protector, the one to make sure no matter what that Steven was safe. Nothing else mattered. No opinions or thoughts, no emotions or personality were needed for his task to love and protect his human half. To be Steven, nothing else was needed from him.</p><p>This was different though. Pink knew that something changed within him when he was separated the second time. He remembered that day as clear as it would be a nightmare. They were Steven, he was trying to protect his family from being hurt and he wanted to stop the fighting. He summoned his shield, but it wasn’t enough. The glowing pink blade sliced then and then there was pain. Nothing but pain and his own gem from being suppressed by the rejuvenator, but then he felt something change. It wasn’t like he was being pulled out, plucked by a Diamond, but instead they were sliced unevenly. He felt his human half taking more of the hit, the burning virus spreading through their body moving to attack the important areas; Their memories and their power. Pink took the blast of their powers, feeling his form solidify but his body much more weaker than it should be. He was kneeling on the grass, glitching and looking at his human half in horror before he poofed under the pressure.</p><p>When he woke up, or at least reform, Pink picked a simple outfit with his diamond logo on it instead of the star Steven had. As much as it scared the gems when he returned, he didn't care. It felt… right to have his status known. Feelings were still new to him, but he decided to hold back on learning these new feelings to help his human half. Right now, all that mattered was Steven, the human Steven. Even though his half doesn’t like the name now, there was no other name he would call him. The name was perfect, warm, and felt so much like home. No matter if fused or not, he was Steven and Steven named him Pink. Right now all that mattered was being there for his other half, even more so since he no longer has his memories.</p><p>“Pink…” the diamond looked down at Steven, seeing him frown deeply in confusion. “What are they talking about? Aren’t you Pink Diamond?”</p><p>The rest of the gang heard the boy talking, now supporting nervous and unsure looks. It upset Pink to see such looks and no sense of action, so he answered instead. “They mean the Pink Diamond before me. A much… older form of me.”</p><p>“Older form…” Steven just looked even more confused, gripping his head as another sharp pain burst through his head. White and pink fire in this vision as he whimpered. Pink was quick to hold his human half more and kiss his forehead, rubbing his back to show comfort.</p><p>Lapis made a small noise of disgust, moving away from the two to glare a bit at Bismuth and Garnet. She asked in a not so quiet voice, “How long will it take to fix this?”</p><p>Bismuth just gave her a grim look. “That’s just it, Lapis. A rejuvenator resets a gem, basically erasing all data memory from the said stone.” She looks at the two stevens no longer paying attention. “One hit, and you’re back to how they made you.”</p><p>“Steven is human though,” Peridot taps her chin, stepping in. “If his gem was removed during the attack, the reaction instead just erases memories to one of the halves.”</p><p>“That doesn’t solve anything! How will this help Steven now,” Pearl asked desperately.</p><p>Amethyst’s eyes then lit up a bit, turning back to Connie. “Didn’t you say that Steven was better when they fused back together.”</p><p>The word fusion snapped both of the halves to look up at the dark skin girl in both shock and awe. For Steven, it was because he felt something when the word was said. Fusion, something so simple and yet brought a sense of joy and a much deeper thump into his heart. Still he didn’t know what they were talking about or what fusion even was, it was just like at this point he should listen to what they were saying this time. As for Pink, he just felt a small sense of shock and a bit of fear. Shock for not really remembering much of what happened with White Diamond before and how she forced him to be apart from his human half. He suddenly remembered the two fusing, both laughing and smiling joyfully as they danced in a circle. Sometimes a fusion doesn’t need a dance, like Smokey Quartz, but maybe that’s what they needed to do. If it meant helping his other half, then he wouldn’t mind becoming non-existent again.</p><p>Before Garnet could help explain to Steven what fusion was, the human half yelped as his diamond copy picked him up bridal style. The others grew tensed, wondering what the gem was doing before Pink just kissed his half’s cheek and hugged him close. Before anyone could try and think on that little move of affection, Pink started to spin around at a decent pace.</p><p>Connie gasped, smiling happily before clapping happily. Now they would fuse and everything can get back to normal. “They’re doing it,” She whispered/screamed happily to the others. “This was their fusion!”</p><p>The gems all smiled a bit at this, turning with hopeful eyes that this will work. Steven was just shocked that Pink was carrying him in such a way, but he wasn’t complaining. Infact, he couldn’t stop smiling. The spinning, the hugging, and the warm vibrating feeling Pink was giving off in his form was making his heavy body feel so much lighter. He grinned, giggling as he saw Pink smile softly back at him as he continued to spin around. Honestly he had no idea why his other half was doing this, but it was fun so he hugged back and clung tightly to him. They both heard the others behind them talking and gasping, but neither cared. They soon laughed, spinning and hugging each other more to the point where their voices just blended together, sounding so much like Steven than ever before. The diamond half then remembered throwing his half into the air, scaring the gems for only a second before the human teen was caught by him once more. They just continued to laugh, continued to dance in a circle and even hold each other's hands. Steven planted his feet on top of Pink’s, the gem copy looking at the other with bright and sparkling diamond eyes as they danced around once more. The two just danced, around and around, just smiling at each other before slowly coming to a stop. The human half was panting, but grinning, his skin more flushed and filled with a healthy color while the pink gem just seemed to be glowing slightly brighter, smiling back. They stood like that, smiling and holding each other's hands before they heard the others still in the room.</p><p>“It… W-why didn’t it work,” Connie asked, stepping forward towards the two as they looked at her with mixed expressions. For Steven it was confusion, with Pink it was just a blank stare. “Why didn’t you fuse back together?”</p><p>“Fuse?” Steven just looked at the girl as if she lost her mind or something. He sorted and shook his head, shocking them with his next words. “What are you talking about? People can’t fuse together.”</p><p>“Huh, yes we can. All gems can fuse,” Amethyst stated, looking more worried and shocked when Steven just shook his head.</p><p>“Gems? Aren’t those things on jewelry or something? You guys aren’t making any sense.” He just turned back over to Pink, seeing that his smile was completely gone now.</p><p>“Steven,” Garnet saw the boy frown and glare at her, but at this point she ignored it. She asked, “What’s the last thing you remember.”</p><p>The teen just hummed, tapping his chin a moment before answering slowly, “Um… I remember I’m sixteen… that I’m male and live in Beach City. I remember Pink Diamond and how he is important to me.” He smiles when saying Pink’s name, moving to hug the gem again as he says happily. “Pink… My other… My Diamond~!”</p><p>“This is madness,” Pearl whispers in a terrified tone, looking back at Garnet with a serious look. “And a serious problem. Garnet, we need to get Steven back his memories and fused before this gets worse.”</p><p>“I understand that Pearl, but it seems that only the human half of Steven has amnesia. We have no idea how humans handle memory lost, so this is out of our hands.” Garnet frowned deeply at her own words, seeing everyone around her looking to be hurt and feeling hopeless as well.</p><p>Connie, having to fully turn away from Steven nuzzling with himself, sighs and wipes her eyes. “I can see if my mom knows anything about amnesia, see if any books can help us out.”</p><p>Garnet nodded. “Alright, and you should also be heading home. It’s getting late, and the rest of us will be getting rid of the remaining poison of the Injector.”</p><p>“What about Spinel…?” Bismuth asked with an edge of grim and anger in her tone. She pointed at the heart gem on the dining room table, bubbled and floating as if it was harmless.</p><p>“She will be kept in the boiling room,” The fusion answered with a bit of heat in her tone as well, but shook it off to walk up and look at the two Steven’s before her. “For now, I think Steven and… Pink is very much tired. Why don’t you two go and get some rest.”</p><p>Steven was about to protest, obviously wanted to know more about this injector, and what gems and fusion is, but Pink had placed a small finger on his lips. The pink being made a shushing gesture and lifted the human half once again to head up the stairs behind them, not even turning back to look at the others or even their own father.</p><p>Greg was sitting there the whole time, looking at his son’s split halves with sad and tired eyes. He didn’t even try to say goodnight to him or anything. It was painful to see the gem half of his son when he first got a sobbing call from Pearl on what happened. When he came to the temple, the gem half of Steven had already reformed and was against the tabel as he watched the others tend to human him. Their eyes met, and nothing. No hello, no run to hug the man back, not even a smile of recognizing his old man. When Pink saw him, he looked at if he was seeing a human that wasn’t even important to him or mattered. The old musician then decided that maybe he would get it from his human son’s half, but it felt like a massive train hit him again when Steven asked who they were. It was like he lost his son all over again when he was kidnapped and sent to Homeworld, but this time he was standing right there but still out of his reach. It was like an invisible barrier was making the hybrid blind to him and deaf as his father bangs on the glass, calling out to him desperately to look his way and call him Dad again. One half forgot him, and the other nor longer cared for him. He hated it, he hated this sense of helplessness.</p><p>With a deep and mournful sigh, he rubbed his face, a few of the gems turning to console him. “I… i want my son back…” He whispered, a few wet tears falling to the wooden floor below him.</p><p>“We know Greg, we want him back as well,” Garnet takes off her shades, letting her three colorful eyes show how deep her concern and sadness ran within her. “But this… is an almost impossible future for me to predict. My vision… sees Steven and Pink and separate people, separate desires, thoughts, wants and futures. Because of this, we need to make this a very delicate process.”</p><p>Connie, now at Greg’s side, tries to hold back another little tear as she slowly asked, “How many futures… did you see of Steven coming back?”</p><p>Garnet frowns. “42 different futures of Steven being one again.”</p><p>“And…” Bismuth swallowed, getting nervous. “How many of him being stuck like this?”</p><p>The fusion just looked at them for a second, looking at each of their faces as they begged her for answers. Instead, she just sighed and summoned her shades back to her face, hiding the tears that threaten to spill out. The act made everyone give off a grim and even despair look on their faces, a few like Pearl and Peridot crying freely as they could no longer hold their tears. They didn’t press for a number, somehow deeply knowing that it was something none of them wanted to hear. their hope for their lovable boy coming back hopeful, but so little in the dark tunnel ahead.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Dahlia Appointment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Three days.</p><p>It took only three days for the injector to be torn down. A decent amount of the organic killing poison was deep into the earth though, making the clean up all the more harder. Both Granet and Mayor Nanefua had set up jobs for both gems and humans to start removing the poison and repairing the damage to the town. Things have been working so far and lapis has been helping with getting rid of most of the poison into a waste dump far away from town. Bismuth had been set up to take care of the building teams, having Little Homeworld placed on hold as she helped rebuild the whole town. Peridot and Amethyst helped with heavy duty things and making sure no human touched the poison directly or was hurt by the chaos. Things were slowly getting there day by day, but the future did look bright for Beach City. However, on the fourth day of the injector being destroyed, the poison had laid in the ground far too long and the ground. It was obvious by the time that the Big Donut was starting to crumble and from its foundation. Dewy was freaking out and demanding the gems fix it to their surprise seeing that the ground was free from the poison, but had aborted so much of it that the ground was turning into black sludge. More buildings were crumbling and the brown dirt was turning black. It was clear to them that this required Steven to see if he can heal the soil and dirt to stop the town from crumbling underneath them.</p><p>The problem was, as many still didn't know, was that Steven still had no memories.</p><p>They had fully believed it to be amnesia at this point. Not only was Steven still split in two, his memory was still filled with just blackness and void. For the past three days, the human side of himself has told them many times that he still had no past memories of the gems, his father, not even the people in town from what it seems. When he was brought to talk to Nanefua, she looked to want to have a heart attack when he commented about not remembering her. It was clear to anyone right now that this was an issue because it was that hybrid would always know what to do in times such as these. Because of this lapse of memory, he had no idea what was going on or even what to do. He saw the dismay of the town but right now he was just another civilian that was now even in more danger since some of the pink glowing poison was still in the town. Many have asked about the gem who had done this to him, but as of right now Spinel was in the boiling room until they figured out how to bring the teen's memories back.</p><p>It wasn't just his mind that was affected by this, but his powers as well. The diamond half, now called Pink Diamond, had his powers shot since the spinel incident and since then has always been by his human's side. Connie had stated to them before she left on the first night that Steven shouldn't even be walking right now from how terrible he was the first time his gem half was removed. It was clear to see now that the teen was far weaker than normal and even more pale, stating how heavy the world felt now and how hard it was to even lift a box or run. Cause of this, Pink never left his human's side, and they were seeing that the odd close touches were helping the teen a lot more when it came to moving around and his skin complexion. Even though the glowing gem's powers were just as damaged as the human's half's memories, it was clear that being close to one another helps them in the long run.</p><p>Still though, the touches and closeness was unsettling and very chill spinning to the gems and the others, but it wasn't even like Steven complained. In fact, he thought the closeness was normal of them to do. Greg was the first person to see just how far this closeness was going to be, being as on the first night as he went to say goodnight he was met with an eerie sight. He saw Steven in his pj's already fast asleep and snuggled right on top of his gem half, the room completely dark and Pink glowing like a night light while he stroked the boy's sleeping cheek and gave him kisses on the forehead from time to time. looked straight at the old man with blank eyes. The look in the diamond's blank gaze to the old man was clear as if it was meaning; to leave. Ever since that night, the two have never separated.</p><p>Everyone saw the unease of their touching situation. The gems in the morning had to watch with lumps in their throats as Pink helped brush his human's hair, cook him his favorite dish, and all with small kisses on the cheek and forehead in between. Everyone had mixed feelings about this whole thing. Steven obviously liked the small kisses and holding, feeling it to be normal. Some of the gems found the closeness cute in besides Pearl, Lapis, and even Connie and Greg. Garnet was in the middle about, feeling mostly just lost on what to do. The close touching and kisses was something all of them can handle for the time being, it was the reaction the more human Steven gave to his gem half. when he spoke with such devotion and glee, even calling him Pink and My Diamond, set everyone off with bone chilling concern. Their connection wasn't brotherly, friendly, or even self love like at all, and they were all concerned it would only get worse. By the fourth day of this, waiting for the human half to get his memories back to no success, the group had decided that for a day they should separate the two.</p><p>The gang had agreed to send Steven to Connie's mother Priyanka to see how badly this memory loss could be while the others figure out a way to have the pink Steven heal the rest of the town. that way they can figure out a way to bring their boy back while also repairing the town. When Pearl and Gerg had told Steven of this doctor appointment, he held really no argument which surprised them.</p><p>It didn't surprise Steven to be going to the doctor. He knows that something is wrong with him when it comes to his memories and seeing pink and white fire when none is there. On his second stay here it was clear to the human that this Temple was his home and these 'gems' were some sort of friends or family of his. although for some odd reason he felt very uneasy with them, he knew that most of it was due simply cause of the amnesia. While he hated the idea of meeting yet another person he has no memories of in his head, if it was a doctor then maybe they can help. It was just one issue though…</p><p>"No." Pink said once more, his face showing nothing once more as he sat almost like a life size doll.</p><p>Amethyst was the next to just lost it. "Why not!?"</p><p>Pink, not being fazed by the screaming, just answered with, "I'm not leaving Steven's side."</p><p>"It's only for an hour at most, and we really need your help to save the town right now," Bismuth said a bit more camly, though slight concern in her tone.</p><p>"Steven's more important," The glowing diamond just shook his head and wrapped his arm around his half's waist line. "Town not important. I will be wherever Steven is to be."</p><p>"How is none of this important to you Stev-" Garnet rubbed her face before being cut off by Steven.</p><p>"For the last time, please call him Pink," the teen had crossed his own arms, glaring a bit annoyingly. "My diamond is named Pink, he isn't Steven and it's getting so annoying to hear it."</p><p>Pearl, flinching half way into that statement, shook her head. " But he is Steven-"</p><p>Steven just growled and threw down his hands. "If you won't respect My Diamond then why on earth will he come and help you fix the town?"</p><p>"Oh my flipping stars please stop saying that..." Amethyst groaned a bit, grabbing her hair as she wished in her mind that this was a nightmare.</p><p>The human half just ignored her, turning to Garnet who had stayed silent. He asked, "Even if Pink said yes to this, don't I get sick when he isn't around? How will I even make it to the doctor lady if I'm 'dying'?"</p><p>Peridot, who was sitting on the table with her tablet notes, nodded in agreement. "He does have a point."</p><p>"But we can't just leave them like this," Pearl stated almost desperately, waving at how Pink still held his human half around the waist. He even moved closer to give Steven a kiss on the cheek much above the white gem's blushing disgust.</p><p>Lapis, who was standing far away from the two, her eyes on the pink gem as she had her arms crossed. "I agree," She hissed slightly, saying harshly, "We can't just let them continue until we know what's really going on here. We should seperate them."</p><p>That caused Pink to give the blue gem a threatening gaze, eyes wide but giving a sign as if daring her too, holding his other closer to his chest.</p><p>"Hold it there Lapis. Connie stated that separating them led to Steven not even being able to walk," Peridot stood up and black the two gems from each other's path, looking to her blue friend. "There are many things we don't know right now, but forcibly breaking them apart might do more damage than good."</p><p>"But the town is falling apart. We need Steven's healing powers to help us," Bismuth stated while ignoring the confusion on the boy's face.</p><p>The human teen looked at his other copy, asking, “What does she mean by you have healing powers?"</p><p>Pink looked at his half a bit before nodding robotically as he explained. “Healing is one of the many powers we possess, though it seems to be only done with spit and tears as well. It's a power as a gem."</p><p>"What... is a gem exactly," Steven asked in confusion, turning to the others as he took glances to the others, seeing the gleams of the stones embedded in their bodies. Then his eyes shifted to Pink's clothes covered stomach. "You told me that the gemstone on you was one."</p><p>Greg, who was sitting in silence on the couch, looked up in shock to speak for the first time. "Hold up, you showed him?"</p><p>"Of course," Pink answered with the man as if he was confused. "I tell Steven everything he wishes to know."</p><p>"Then you must have told him that your healing might be the only thing to save the town," Garnet cut in again, frowning deeply. "Please Pink..."</p><p>The pink half looked at the fusion with once again a blank face. "No. My place is by my half's side."</p><p>"Urgh! We're just going around in circles at this point," Amethyst groaned in annoyance, flopping onto the bed.</p><p>Everyone agreed, each giving their own defeated frowns and sighs. Steven and Pink just stood there looking at the group with their own mixed expressions. Honestly the human half just didn’t know what to do, or what this aching feeling was in his chest seeing their defeated faces. He didn’t want to mean to these people, no he can see that a few of them were a bit nice. This was his family they told him, they have lived together all of his life, but that didn’t bring him to trust them or be nice. It was clear that they wanted to separate him from his Diamond, but right now they both were planning to stand their ground.</p><p>Even if they were family, Steven just couldn’t bring himself to be separated from Pink. It was strange, this feeling of warmth when he touched the glowing gem. Holding his hand, feeling his soft lips on his otherwise cold cheek, made the burning lava pain in his mind fade and bring a bright light to his chest. It felt right to be close to Pink. Like he was supposed to hold him, touch him, be close to him cause the diamond was his. The young teen felt a click in his mind when he latched eyes with the copy, his mind screaming that this was Pink Diamond and this person was yours. He knew he could trust Pink out of anyone else here and that if anything were to go wrong then Pink would protect him. He knew the glowing male felt the same way without a doubt. The touching, protective holding, and even the small shows of affection just proved that the diamond felt the same warmth between them. That’s why he wasn’t going to let himself be separated by anyone, even if they were his supposed family. He was scared of the lava and the burning fire to return again, so he won’t ever let go of his Diamond unless he had to. Which he hoped to be never.</p><p>Greg, who was watching this whole scene play out, sighed as he looked at his watch and saw the time to be well in the afternoon. He turned back to his son(s), seeing Pink still holding on to Steven’s waistline as the other placed his head against each other. He frowned at this, the act looking very cute he wasn’t going to lie, but also slightly concerning just all around. He really hoped that Priyanka would be able to help with this.</p><p>“Look we need to drop this.” Everyone turned to the older man, Greg shaking his head as he stepped between the gems and his son(s). He said in a firm tone, “I think Pink should come along with me and Steven.”</p><p>Pearl frowned deeply at this, stepping forward in concern. “But Greg are you sure…?”</p><p>“Yes Pearl. Something tells me that even if the gem, Priyanka would want to examine both of my son’s halves to try and see how to fix this,” Greg then smiled as best as he could, which wasn’t much. “Besides, Connie did state that Steven is weak without Pink around and we don’t know how long this will take.”</p><p>“If you are sure…” Garnet mumbled a bit, then nodding as she crossed her arms. “It’s up to you Greg, but I would recommend watching heavily over those two.”</p><p>The old man nodded, giving a smile. “You got it Garnet. Come on Steven… and Pink!”</p><p>Both Steven and Pink look at each other for looking back at Greg, each of them giving a look of uneasiness and blankness respectively. After a second they nod and the teen puts on a colorful pair of blue and red sneakers before heading out, the gems looking a bit upset that his pink slippers were left untouched ever since he lost his memories. In fact, the whole gang had noticed that the boy had even dressed oddly today as well. Neither Granet, Pearl or Amethyst remember Steven ever owning a dark blue t-shirt and grey jeans of any kind. He didn’t even bother to wear his favorite pink organic jacket today either, and he always wore those even on hot summer days. Steven’s gem half was the only one ‘dressed’ in the same outfit as before, but it was weird seeing the diamond logo on the front of his shirt beside the star. It just brought some bad feelings through the whole room. Everyone agreed silently they wanted Steven to be helped and very soon.</p><p>As the two boys followed Greg to his van, Steven started to take more notice of the look of the house he was staying in. Pink was able to show him the whole place from his room to the garden he had on the top floor, but looking at it from outside was different. Even when he went to meet the Mayor and tons of others in Beach city, he never took a moment to look out of the house. He gasped slightly at the sight of the woman carved into the mountain and how those many hands were basically holding the hold in place. She looked beautiful, almost goddess like, it sent a small feeling in his gut when he looked at her two faces. It was like he had seen her before, but looking very much different. He felt hot, like he was a volcano just ready to burst. Looking at her brought such excitement and energy, but confusion. Why did this statue make him feel pumped for a battle? The feeling vanished as he felt Pink take his hand, feeling the warmth again as he smiled and turned to the glowing teen.</p><p>Steven just giggled and turned to see Greg already stepping into his van, seeing the title Universe on the side. Curious, he pulled Pink toward the van and pointed at the colorful words. “Universe? Is that our name Pink?”</p><p>Pink looked at the side of the van with a blank stare, then nodded to his other half. “Mhm. Your name is Steven Quartz Cutiepie DeMayo Diamond Universe.”</p><p>The teen frowned at the name, tipping his head as he gave a look of confusion. “Such a long name, and Steven still still doesn't sound like my name.”</p><p>“Then… what should I call you,” Pink asked, wanting to please his other half.</p><p>Steven blushed slightly, tapping his chin in a cute manner to the pink gem. He then grinned with a bright shine in his eyes. No stars. “I don’t know,” he then winks. “But I’ll think of something My Diamond!”</p><p>Just as Pink blushed slightly at the sight of his other, Greg called out from in the van. “Come on guys. Don’t want you late for your appointment!”</p><p>With that, both Pink and Steven climb into the van. With the glowing gem sitting in the back and his human half now in the front seat with their father. Greg started the car up and the three were off the beach and to the road to the hospital. During the trip, Greg was quick to see that his son was pulling his gem half in the back and came and leaned in between them to see the outside world. Beach City wasn’t looking pretty at the moment, but once they hit the freeway the two lit up in their eyes as they smiled at the sights. Steven mostly did as he pointed at the beautiful fields and cars that passed by. The old man couldn’t help but smile just a tad cause it reminded him how much of a kid his son always is, even at the age of sixteen he still acts and enjoys doing kid stuff. He didn’t miss some of the small smiles that the gem half of his boy gave either, taking most of his glances to the human half.</p><p>Still, just seeing two different versions of his one and only son made Greg feel worried. Even though he was paying attention to the road, he took glances at Steven and Pink in great detail. Steven was deadly pale now than he was before. He lost the vanilla tan he used to have, healthy and alive, to now look close to that of a ghost and ill. Even though he never acted like it, he could see the small bags under his eyes and the slight drop of his brown curly hair. He sounded weaker than he was before, and he looked to have trouble seeing a bit. The rose design in his hair was gone too, looking more just like messy curly locks than the same soft curls he had once had. All in all, his son looked sick and even in pain. Pink, the other half, looked just more gem than anything. He looked to have basically all of Steven’s healthy side and then some. His hair seems to be made of dozens of roses, and was way more curly now than he remembered days ago. He was a silence of the two, even a bit shy, but he was full of much more energy than his other half, so much so that the old man was sure he touched his son just to give him some of that energy. Maybe that’s why they were so close. Well, they wouldn’t know until their visit with Priyanka.</p><p>It was another ten minutes before the sight of the hospital came into view, causing both Steven and Pink to look on with wide eyes at the building. Greg can understand their awe at the building since Steven had never been a hospital before. Somehow the old man couldn’t help but groan, since he knew that Connie’s mother would tear him a new one once she found out.</p><p>As the three went inside, it didn’t take long for Priyanka to take Steven in. what shocked her though the moment she stepped into the room was seeing two Stevens sitting side by side. “You gotta be kidding me…”</p><p>Greg smiled sheepishly as his son(s) gave the doctor mixed expressions. “I’m afraid so Mrs. Maheswaran.”</p><p>“Dr. Maheswaran.” She sighed out, pulling out a clipboard for Steven to write his information on. “You’re lucky my patient canceled their appointment today. Connie only gave me so much to go off on. She said that Steven was split in half.”</p><p>“It’s huh… more to it then that.” Greg said as he pointed her to look at Steven again.</p><p>Priyanka turned to see Steven holding the clipboard and frowning deeply at the blank lines. The glowing pink Steven next to him pointing at the name space and whispering to him their name so he could write it in. She was kind of shocked by this, but mostly looked concerned. He didn’t seem to have trouble writing things in, but she saw he was confused on the date of birth and his name. Okay very not good signs. Plus the fact that she can see him more deadly pale than she remembered him to be, and the weaker he looked. The second pink copy og him was most likely gem related, but it was clear that something was definitely wrong here. She gave a look that demanded him to explain.</p><p>Greg flinched a bit under the gaze, chuckling nervously. “Well um… Steven sort of… lost his memory.”</p><p>“I’m gonna need more detail than that Mr. Universe.” The young doctor crossed her arms as her eyes got harder in gaze.</p><p>“The gems told me that when that massive drill thing came down to Beach City, a gem attacked my son with a reset weapon.” He answered honestly, his nervousness turning into worry. “It caused him to lose his memories and have his gem separated from his body. He doesn’t even remember his own name.”</p><p>Priyanka frowned deeply at this, turning back when Steven lifted the clipboard to her with a sheepish smile. “Here you Mrs. Doctor. Pink told me I don’t have a SSN so i couldn’t answer that one.”</p><p>She took the clipboard and frowned deeply, looking at Steven as his gem held onto his arm tightly. It was clear that he was very nervous around her then his human half was, he just looked more curious of her than anything. She sighed and tapped her chin. “Well… I’ll run some test Mr. Universe. At least we should see if we can fix any non gem related issues.”</p><p>Greg nodded as the other two just watched the two adults. Priyanka then turned to Steven with a reasoning smile. “So Steven, who is your GED?”</p><p>“G...ED?” Steven repeated back in confusion.</p><p>“You know your Pediatrician. Your regular doctor.”</p><p>“Oh huh…” The two turn to Greg, who scratched his head. “Steven… Never went to the doctor… until now.”</p><p>“WHAT!?” Both Steven and Priyanka shouted in shock, the latter looked more pissed than fearful like the young teen was. She growled and glared daggers at the old man. “He’s sixteen years old and hasn’t been to the doctor!?”</p><p>“What am I supposed to do? He's a gem and wasn’t born in a hospital, so he is basically an alien Priyanka!”</p><p>Steven was trembling in such fear and confusion, neither adult saw him snuggle into Pink’s embrace to hide his face from them. His brain was starting to hurt and his heart was gripped in slight fear, all two things that make the glowing pink diamond growl and let out a calm tone. “Stop yelling. You’re scaring Steven.”</p><p>Priyanka stopped grilling into the older Universe, sighing as she rubbed her face at the mess of these two. If it wasn’t for the fact that this was a serious matter, she would have thought that seeing a bashful Steven being held by a twin version of him protectively is pretty cute. “Alright… Besides your father being an idiot, I’ll check your vials and get to work okay.”</p><p>With a steady nod, Greg gently convinced Pink to step off the table to stand next to him so that Dr. Maheswaran treat Steven. It didn’t stop the glowing gem to watch the doctor like a hawk as she touched his human half. The diamond watched as she placed a digital ear thermometer into the teen’s ear, seeing that his temperature was normal at 98.4. Of course the gem teen would have been able to tell her that, just as he could have told her that his blood pressure is lower than normal for Steven to have, but that was the result of them being separated. After that, he watched his human half get half naked and wear those hospital gowns but happily still kept his pants. The two universes watch with silence as Priyanka checked more of his vials and symptoms. Greg took glances though at Pink who was standing right next to him, shivering slightly as he saw the glowing version of his son was watching Priyanka like a hawk watching his prey. It was freaky and very concerning to the old man. His diamond eyes never blinked or moved unless she did, and when she was touching Steven she saw him tense slightly and gaze harder. It was clear that he didn’t like being away from his human half like this. Even two feet away from each other and he was losing it slightly whenever she touched the other. All of his focus, all of his energy and attention, was focused on keeping Steven safe. The old man didn’t know if she should be grateful or terrified.</p><p>As he turned back to Steven, he saw the boy obeying the woman with no arguments or discomfort. He opened his mouth for her to take a look inside, let her check his eyes and heart beat. She even went as far as to smack his knee with a little hammer, he made no movement to react to the feeling of it. Honestly he had no idea what all of this meant or what Priyanka was humming about with every discovery she made of his vials. He learned some things about his now fully human son that scared him greatly. One of them being that the boy no longer had 20/20 vision and was having a bit of trouble seeing things from a far. It got to the point where she needed to take x-rays, leaving Pink even more upset that he had to be separated from Steven even future apart. First it was normal x-rays, then she went as far as to do a brain scan since he had signs of memory lost. The suspense was killing the man too, not knowing what more could be wrong with his son besides the loss of memories and being split in two from his gem.</p><p>After the scanning and the x-rays were finished up, Steven was brought back into the room where he rushed over to Pink and the two embraced tightly. The human half made a soft noise of joy to finally be back with his gem half, snuggling into the warmth as the other pet his soft brown curls. Priyanka stepped in to give them an odd look but turned over to Greg with flies and the x-rays for the man to look at.</p><p>Greg gulped, trying to hide the shakiness of his hands. “Is there something wrong?”</p><p>Priyanka answered honestly, “Besides his blood pressure being a bit lower than normal, and his sense of vision is a bit tad weak, everything about his vitals are normal.”</p><p>“T-That’s good… right?”</p><p>Then she frowned deeply and sighed, pulling up two x-rays to the light monitor. Greg, Pink, and Steven look at the sight of one being the teen’s skeleton and another being his brain scan. Priyanka then pulled up two other pictures of a skeleton and brain scan. Looking between them, the three honestly saw nothing really different. Though, looking closer, the teen had seen that his x-ray had more lines and cracks in his skeleton than the normal human skeleton. It was almost scary to see. He even had about three of them around his right eye, making him touch his face in deep confusion. Pink just held his human half tighter as he looked at the fractures. He remembered a few of them, a sense of protection and to heal their body still fueled the diamond. Remembering where each fracture came from, brought a nothing but fear of what would happen to his human now. Even more so since they weren’t fused and his powers aren’t working normally anymore.</p><p>“There seems to be many fractures that are perfectly a line and healed,” Priyanka explained, pointing around Steven’s skull. “Most of them are in the skull, but they healed from the looks of it right after he had the injury.”</p><p>Greg smiled happily. “That’s good right?”</p><p>The taller dark skin doctor frowned at this, but continued as if she didn’t hear him. “I also did some scans on his brain, as well as a few questions afterwards.” She pointed at the scan of Steven’s brain. “I see no injuries or even damaged nerves in his brain, but something is off with it. Also like his brain is operating much lower than a normal human brain.”</p><p>“What does that mean Dr. Maheswaran,” Steven asked in a small voice, looking very scared. “Is there something wrong with my brain?”</p><p>“Not wrong Steven,” She kneels down to Pink and Steven, keeping eye level with him to keep him calm. “Nothing wrong no, but it is clear that whatever happened to you has caused your brain to act differently. I’m calling it a form of Prosopagnosia and Amnesia.”</p><p>“What does that mean,” Greg asked, very frightened.</p><p>The doctor explained slowly. "Prosopagnosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces. Depending upon the degree of impairment, some people with prosopagnosia may only have difficulty recognizing a familiar face; others will be unable to discriminate between unknown faces. Some people with the disorder are unable to recognize their own face. Prosopagnosia is not related to memory dysfunction or memory loss though so that wouldn't be the problem forgetting everything of his life."</p><p>Steven tapped his chin, looking between his father and Dr. Maheswaran with a blank look on his face. He stated honestly, “That does explain why when I think of my father, no face really pops up.”</p><p>“Yes, in fact whatever happened to you with that gem attack could be a gem equestion to Prosopagnosia. As well as Amnesia.” Priyanka then looked to have a deep thought in her mind. She then crossed her arms and continued. “Steven seems to be having only an odd gem version of this amnesia though, since he has lost most experiences and some information when coming to gems or gem related info.”</p><p>Steven looked at Pink, then at his father with deep confusion and just sight frustration. “You said earlier that I’m really alien and not human. So I'm a gem.”</p><p>“We both are,” Pink spoke before Greg, causing the human half to turn to look at him with wide eyes. The diamond half just pointed between and answered honestly. “We are Steven. I’m your gem half and you are my human half. We used to be one, but Spinel separated us.”</p><p>“Oh…” Steven said softly, shocked by this but mostly just sad. He was a gem, Pink was a piece of him. They were Steven together and it made him upset that he can’t remember anything. He sighed. “I wish i could remember.”</p><p>Priyanka smiled, saying, “you will Steven, whatever this gem stuff is i’m sure you can.” Somehow, her small words made him smile a bit, even more so as Pink took his hand even tighter.</p><p>"... Okay," Steven sighed, looking up at Priyanka with determined eyes. "I-I'll get my memories back! Count on it!"</p><p>She smiled softly along with Greg as she nodded "Now remember to not overwork yourself. Sometimes memories return gradually. I believe the best for you right now is just to interact with everyone to see if something gets triggered."</p><p>The human teen nodded. "Okay. Thank you Ma'am!"</p><p>"Please Steven just call me Dr. Maheswaran." She gave him a comforting smile, moving her hand to gently pet his soft brown curls.</p><p>That seems to have been the wrong move though, cause then the two gasped to see a pink hand slapped her own hand out of the boy's hair. Both of them turned to see Pink with his hand out but a harsh glare on the gem’s face. Priyanka's hand stung a bit to her, making him hiss slightly and bring her hand to her chest and away from the two. Steven had looked at his diamond's look on his face. It seemed dangerous, almost threatening in expression alone. His diamond eyes glowed as the pupils shirken into bullseye towards the doctor's hand, his face blank but definitely dangerous in nature as he glared daggers at her. The hunman teen also felt his emotions, subtle but loud enough for him to somewhat hear in his rapid beating heart. Anger, pure anger and rage along with the constant thumping that only felt to say '<em>Mine</em>' over and over. this along with his glare, made the teen shiver in slight fear but also glee. For some reason, the feeling only made him give the other a tipside smile.</p><p>Greg and Priyanka though, only felt fear when they saw the diamond's reaction. They never saw a gem or Steven act so sudden and violent like that, even if it was a hand slap. That's what scared both of them, they knew that Pink would have hurt the doctor more if she tried to touch Steven again. It was unreal to them, almost like it wasn't supposed to happen before their eyes. Steven was never the violent type but yet half of himself looked like he wanted to punch the doctor ever since they showed up. His face full of nothing but rage and murderous looks within his diamond eyes. Even though he never spoke, the message in those eyes were clear once more to never try and touch his half again.</p><p>Before Greg could try and help calm the crazy diamond part of his son, Steven raised his hand and tried to stop him from trying.. “Gr-Dad it’s okay!"</p><p>The old man looked at him as if he just went insane. "W-What? Steven are you sure-"</p><p>"It was her fault," Steven ignored the small gasps of shock towards him, shrugging his shoulders as he smiled and moved closer to Pink.</p><p>Both of the adults watch with slightly shocked eyes to see Pink quickly change to a calmer demeanor once his eyes are laid on the other's. Steven continued to smile at his gem half, moving to hug him tightly before whispering loudly, "It's okay my Diamond, Dr. Maheswaran isn't going to touch me again."</p><p>Pink trembled slightly, then moved his arms to hug his other half to his chest. The other two just frowned in confusion, watching silently as the diamond held onto his human in such a possessive way. His pink eyes never left Dr. Maheswaran's eyes though as he said bluntly, "Good. No one should touch you… My Dahlia."</p><p>Priyanka just shuddered a bit in fear as Steven just hummed and melted into his other's tight holds. She frowned at this, seeing the pink copy now petting the other's head and stroking his back. The two boys were quick to dress the human half back up and leave to go to the van, more so Pink taking charge and the teen followed with a dazed look on his face. Greg was frozen in shock, not knowing what to do with what just happened. Priyanka didn’t know what happened, but she did know something was happening between those two… and the ending was going to be very bad if they screw this up.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Eventful Dinner</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“So I have gem amnesia,” Steven declares calmly, dipping his mouth into the red tomato sauce before taking a taste. Frowning a bit at the slight blandness, he shrugs and talks over his shoulder. “Dr. Maheswaran said that my memory loss seems to be only limited to things related to gems. She said that in time my memories might come back, but it’s best to understand gems again and see if I get triggered by something.”</p><p>Greg chuckled a bit nervously as he took a glance at everyone else at the dinner table, seeing mixed faces with everything that the hybrid was casually giving them. Pink also saw their reactions as well from his spot at his human’s side. In fact, Pink has been on edge ever since the doctor appointment at the hospital. It may have been weird but ever since Priyanka had touched her Steven, the diamond boy wouldn’t leave his side.</p><p>On the van ride back home, Pink had a loss in his mind on the issues he had been having with all of this. At first, being separated from his human half had frightened him to such a high degree. Being Steven, them being one perfect being, it had its own pro and cons to their relationship. His human half was the half that was on the front lines, to grow and learn from their family and loved ones while the diamond was the subconscious that protected them from harm. As they grew up together, his connection to his human half improved and he was able to feel what his human needed. He could even sometimes hear his thoughts. Steven just wanted a happy future and peace for all, but all Pink wanted was his human’s happiness and to love him. He did love Steven, he loved being Steven and loved his human half. There was no mistaking the deep feelings he had for the very being that gives him meaning. His human, his Dahlia was the only person who could make him laugh and smile. Make him feel, and if that wasn’t love then it was something much stronger and beautiful. Pink loves Steven, forever and more.</p><p>When White pulled them apart, pulled him away from his human half, it was the first time that Pink could see that he felt his own emotions. All he felt anger, fear, and deep frustration. He didn’t know fully what was going on with his human half, but he felt all of the same emotions from him when they were one. Steven was so scared too, terrified when he saw flashes of White smiling down at them when she had her claws at their gem. It angered Pink because he was forced away from his other half, left to form his own body when his half was in pain. It scared Pink to see that his half looked to be dying, suffering and not even being able to walk on his own. It frustrated Pink cause this was all done to prove that his previous self was still alive. Everything they had been though, every fight the diamond half couldn’t save his human from, it was all because of Rose Quartz. To finally tell them that she was gone, to show them that Pink wasn’t her anymore, was the only thing to smile about besides his Dahlia. Ever since that day though, Pink has been more focused on protecting his other half and making sure he could control their powers more. He didn’t want to be separated from his other half again, too frightened over what would happen if he couldn’t save him in time.</p><p>When they were attacked by Spinel’s rejunantor, Pink felt the same pain that Steven did but he also felt his whole force being pushed back. Back to the same darkness he has been at for the first twelve years of their lives. Where his connection with his human half was weak and not fully strong enough. Pink didn’t want that, and deep down he felt like Steven knew that. He didn’t know how, but during the misdirected attack, he felt pulled not only pushed back on his powers but pulled away from his half again. He was forced to form his own body again because he was away from his human once more. Pink wanted to hurt Spinel for doing it, for causing them pain and being separated once more, but when he formed and saw his human twitching and screaming with white and pink vines all over his face he was frozen in place. His face was facing the glowing gem, his eyes bright white and filled with nothing but pain, he knew something was deep.</p><p>Now his Steven had no memories of gems and that makes him vulnerable. Pink wanted to fuse and protect his half, but now that he had lost his memories and his own powers were still too weak to help, it was best not to. The diamond knew they could fuse back together, but for now it was best to protect his half this way. Separate and close. Nothing else mattered but his Dahlia.</p><p>“My Diamond.” Pink pulled out of his thoughts as he turned to see Steven with red sauce on his face and smiling softly. The human teen pointed at spices next to the glowing gem and asked, “Can you pass the pepper and garlic powder?”</p><p>Ignoring the flinches a few of the gems gave, mostly Bismuth and Pearl, Pink handed the items to Steven as he perked up and thanked the diamond. Smiling, the gem half leaned forward and took his thumb to clean the smudge of tomato sauce from his cheek. He couldn’t help but smile softly at the small blush his human gave at the gentle act. “Anything for you My Dahlia,” Pink whispered gently, letting his hand linger a bit longer on his warm cheek.</p><p>Lapis, with her arms still crossed and her gaze more like a glare, turned to look at Greg. “Dahlia?”</p><p>The old universe just sighed and smiled a bit at them. “It’s the nickname… Um Pink gave him the appointment.” Greg sighed and shrugged at them. “What was I supposed to do? Steven likes it, so I didn’t complain.”</p><p>“Figure out a way for them to drop the… diamond title…” Pearl mumbled, looking more nervous and still trembling in her seat. She hadn’t been able to look at the two in the kitchen since they came back.</p><p>Amethyst frowned and leaned against the table as she tried to change the topic. “So this Gem Amnesia, how come Steven had forgotten his Dad, Connie, and most of Beach City?”</p><p>Before Greg could explain, Pink piped up and answered in a monotone voice. “Because most of the humans Steven knows are due to something gem related. Dad was married to a gem, and met most of his friends with most likely a gem with him. He met Connie and had to fight a gem monster. Lars and Sadie are due to Garnet taking him to the Big Donut when he was eleven. So on.”</p><p>“I do remember some one though,” Steven commented as he finished putting the noodles in. “A few of them look familiar enough. I remember Onion and his family when I checked my contacts. So I believe I met them before I met you guys.”</p><p>“Interesting...” Peridot mumbles from her spot on the table, moving a bit when Pink comes over and places bowls in front of her and a few others. “But then how come you remember your gem half Pink? You had to have gotten that name somewhere?”</p><p>To this, the human half just frowned in deep thought, his brown eyes turning to his Diamond as he smiled and shrugged at the others. “I… I think it’s just cause. I mean...everyone is saying how we are one being, the same person. When I saw Pink I just felt he was important to me, that he was my Diamond.”</p><p>This answer just made some of them look worried at the wording. Pink could see who was even more disgusted while others were just concerned. The pink gem took extra watch on the original Crystal Gems and Lapis. For some odd reason he felt a deep feeling of distrust in them. Garnet was being mostly silent through all of this, same as Bismuth though she just looked a bit of a twitch at the small comments and reaction the two of them made. Pearl looked like she was on the edge of her seat from exploding and screaming, maybe even crying. Lapis just looked at the diamond with deep distrust and rage in her eyes, also disgust which made the gem half feel just deep confusion. Amethyst just seemed concerned about the whole environment. Of course she was upset about her brother losing his memories, but Pink could tell she was watching the group just like he was. Peridot just seemed more curious about everything, most likely trying to keep a positive attitude to all of this. Pink knew they were worried about what to do with all of this, even he was a bit worried as well, but he still felt some odd things about them so he kept close to Steven to protect him.</p><p>Pink honestly could understand the concern. His Steven wasn’t acting like himself, and of course he never used titles like that before. What upset the diamond half was just the looks of disgust they gave, and how much of them actually had the guts to glare at him like this was his fault.</p><p>Nothing they were doing was wrong and Pink did nothing wrong to his human half either to lose his memories like this. It was Spinel’s fault which meant it was deep down Rose Quartz’s fault. Everything Steven felt and acted like was purely by the nature of their connection towards each other. They were Steven, a fusion based on the purest of love and self worth. Honestly if Ruby and Sapphire were here and making out on the table, no one would even bat an eye to it. Most likely call it cute and take photos for Garnet to look at with them later. All they were doing was showing comfort and care and simple hand holding, and now Lapis looks ready to beat him down into the ocean floor. It upset the small diamond greatly to see them like this. He was protecting Steven, making sure he wasn’t in pain and making him happy, but in just three days alone they wanted to separate them and focus him to fix the town when they know his powers are not working. He’s just as useless to them as the human teen is at remembering their names. He wasn’t going to help them until he knew his other half was safe and okay, and only when his other half tells him so. No doctor will tell him what to do either.</p><p>With that in mind, Pink helped Steven pull out the garlic bread from the oven and grab bowls from the cabinets. The human teen smiled and looked over to the others before asking, “I finished dinner. Anyone want a bowl?”</p><p>“Sure man,” Amethyst raised her hand from her spot at the table. “Love to try your famous cooking.”</p><p>Greg smiled and nodded in agreement. “I’ll have one as well, Stew-ball.” Garnet and Bismuth nodded as well to state they will have some.</p><p>“Yes, but I need napkins!” Peridot stated loudly as she placed her tabel on the tablet beside her. “I won;t have the red liquid paste fall over my equipment.”</p><p>Steven’s eyes shined brightly as he went and started to fill the bowls up with spaghetti, handing them to Pink to give to each respective person. The diamond did so in silence, giving them all blank looks as they carefully took their bowls from the eerie gem. Honestly just the fact that his human half doesn’t fully notice the tension was a blessing in disguise.</p><p>By the time everyone got a plate, Steven gave two moves to give to Pearl and Lapis but Pink didn’t move from his spot next to the boy. He tipped his head at this and asked, “Pink? What’s wrong? Lapis and Pearl didn’t get any yet.”</p><p>Pink just turned to the two, the human half following his gaze to see Lapis with her arms crossed and sitting on the couch with Bismuth. Pearl was sitting next to Greg and Amethyst on the table, still holding a concerned look but now held a more apologinc one when he saw Steven’s upset face. The diamond half just stated bluntly, “Pearl and Lapis don’t need to eat. They don’t like food.”</p><p>“Oh…” Steven frowneda bit, then shrugged a bit. “Makes sense I guess. You did say before that gems don’t really eat. As long as you two are okay?”</p><p>The blue water gem just stayed quite as Pearl nodded and said, “We’re very much fine Steven.”</p><p>The teen smiled. “Then I guess these two are for us, unless you decide not to eat as well My Diamond.”</p><p>“I will enjoy anything you make my Dahlia,” Pink said back with a smile on his face, taking their plates to the table. Steven followed and sat right next to his diamond with Garnet on his other side, right across from Pearl and the others. With a small grin, he began to eat along with the others while also trying to have some sort of small talk with his Dad across the table.</p><p>Pink ate silently and slowly, not used to eating on his own. It wasn’t really his first meal, he did have a taste of mac and cheese his human half had last night, but it was just an odd sensation for him to experience. He really did love the savor taste of the sauce and the noodles hitting his chin from time to time made his other giggle so he enjoyed that too. It was nice to have his first taste of food without his human half. When fused, he never really knew what food tasted like or even what food he was seeing his half ate from time to time. Being a discussion only gave him information on what kind of food he likes and why, normally because it was sweet and sugary. The diamond was kind of happy he can enjoy the same things Steven loved to have and enjoy. He honestly would have never had this chance if they didn’t separate. Though he was a bit sad about his memories of their times together as Steven, he was enjoying just being separated for once. He would like to be fused again, but these small things like eating were almost costing him not to. It wasn’t really his choice though so he decided to enjoy this while it lasted. Once Steven got his pieces back, they would fuse and the diamond would go back to his purpose constantly.</p><p>He listened to some bits of the small talk. They were mostly small questions Steven asked his Dad about their family and what his father does for a living. Amethyst and Garnet pitched in from time to time, but the tension was still there. Pearl was being quiet, as were Peridot, Bismuth, and Lapis. Peridot looked just more interested in trying to eat the cooking spaghetti while Bismuth was just being content with not speaking. Lapis was seething where she sat. Pink felt very uneasy with everything, and honestly it felt like this dinner with the family will end on a very sour note. He had to be ready.</p><p>Next to him, Steven quickly grabbed the glowing pink gem’s shoulder as he looked at Greg with a bright smile. “That’s so awesome Dad. Do you think me and Pink can go see your car wash?”</p><p>Greg gave a weary smile, but did nod a yes to the question as he played with his pasta. “Sure kiddo, but after the town is fixed okay. Garnet and the others said there is still some poisoned soil that needs to be removed.”</p><p>“Oh yeah…” He perked up and turned to Pink. “Do you think we can help the town My Diamond? I remember them saying how you have healing powers.”</p><p>Pearl flinched, her hand gripping painfully on her wrist, but Pink ignored it and answered honestly, “I can try Steven. My powers have been working a bit better.”</p><p>“Yes! You’re the best My Diamond!” With that happy cheer, Steven hugged his pink copy and kissed him on the cheek. Almost dangerously close to the corner of the gem’s lips.</p><p>That. He didn’t know how or why, but Pink knew this was the final straw for Pearl. It must have been the kiss or the flood of the titles, but the diamond wasn’t fully sure. Garnet must have seen the future version of this and looked ready to stop the white gem, but it was far too late. Before anyone could fully grasp what had happened, the white gem shouted and shot up from her chair to slam her hands right against the wooden surface.</p><p>“THAT’S IT! I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!”</p><p>Steven flinched back and looked at the white gem in complete shock, not fully grasping what had happened to get Pearl so upset. Pink frowned and quickly placed his arm between the two as his whole body became tense and ready to attack. The others were all either looking at Pearl in shock or just now standing up to try and figure out how to handle this whole issue. Pearl was trembling from head to toe, her bright sky blue eyes wet and threatening to shed tears of frustration. Her hands curled into fist on the table as her mind tried to clear and yet state her issues with everything going down. It was clear, even to Amethyst, that this diamond title the teen so happily says was getting to the poor skinny gem. None of them knew how deep this feeling ran through in the gem, and none of them thought she would be the one to freak out first or at least not to this extreme.</p><p>Garnet stood up and raised her hand to the white gem, trying to calm her down. “Pearl stop, you need to calm down-”</p><p>“I will not calm down!” Pearl cut her off before she could finish, giving the fusion pleading eyes as she snapped. “I can’t take this Garnet! I just can’t! How can I sit here and let this be normal!?” She waved her hand at both of the halves of her baby.</p><p>“Whoa Pearl chill,” Amethyst gently placed a hand on her arm, trying to calm down her friend who was obviously upset.</p><p>“There’s nothing we can do Pearl,” Garnet spoke calmly. “Believe me, we don’t like this anymore than you do, but as long as Steven isn’t hurt then that’s the best we can hope right now.”</p><p>Pearl just took a look of offence to that. “But he isn’t okay Garnet! Anyone with one eye can see that! Steven is… h-he’s flirting with himself and waiting on him hand and foot like a-”</p><p>“Steven needs Pink. Right now he can hardly be apart from him for more than fifteen minutes Pearl,” The fusion raised her hand to stop her from shourting. “The affection they have for each other is normal for them. They are comforting each other.”</p><p>“Why are you letting this even happen!? What about our plan to separate them until Steven gets his memories !? For stars sake he is calling his gem side by his mother’s name!”</p><p>That statement rubbed both Steven and Pink the wrong way. For the latter it was more so annoying while his human half tensed at the mention of his mother. No one even talked about her yet, not even his diamond, and for odd reasons his heart grew a sharp pain. Everyone went somewhat quite at this mention of Rose, but Pink was the one who spoke up. “Her name isn’t Pink Diamond.”</p><p>Pearl turned to the glowing copy of Steven, frowning deeply as she stated, “Her name is Pin-”</p><p>“No. She changed her name. She became Rose Quartz and abandoned her title. I am Pink,” The diamond half said in a clear but cold tone.</p><p>“Urgh! Enough of that Steven,” She rubbed her faced in frustration. “Enough of this game. You’re not Pink Diamond.”</p><p>Steven took this moment to speak up, looking at the white gem in complete confusion and small nervousness. “Pearl please. He’s name is Pink Diamond, that’s what he’s gem is. A diamond? So it fits with him. He is My Pink Diamond.”</p><p>“Stop speaking like he OWNS you! You are BOTH Steven!!”</p><p>That was basically a nail in the coffin as she started slamming her hand down again on the table again, tipping one of the bowls of food over and Peridot to squeak in the background. Bismuth and Lapis stood up as well as Greg and his son(s). Steven yelped and quickly was pushed behind protectively by Pink as he held a deep almost murderous glare at the gem screaming. None of the gems really knew what to do though.</p><p>This wasn’t new but it was all the more shocking really. It was rare to see Pearl and Steven fighting, honestly Amethyst and Garnet had only seen it happen twice and that was when he was in his tween and young teen years. It was so bizarre to see and almost impossible to stop between the two until one of them steps over the line. The relationship between these two are like that a kin to a mother and son, their bond rocky but never really strained in any way making arguments like this all the more shocking and harder to break up. None of them could blame the white gem for freaking out like this. All of them were scared, confused, and worried for Steven and his new problem. None of them knew how to help or what could be done, even more so when it was clear that the two halves are going to be touchy with each other until they fuse back together. What made it worse though for the screaming gem was mostly like Pink himself and the devious Steven obviously has for him. The relationship between the three ran deeper than even when the boy was born, and thinking about it more it amazed them how she didn’t snap sooner about all of this.</p><p>Still, they knew that this was going to end badly if they didn’t do something to calm everyone down. Steven was obviously trembling in fear behind Pink. The sight made Amethyst and Greg look obviously sad and filled with worry. Garnet saw this future, but if she didn’t stop either Pink or Pearl it was going to end badly. The glowing diamond was glaring at her like his look could shatter her on the spot, the gaze only hardening when she felt his other half grip tightly to his right hand.</p><p>Pink felt something burn within, something he hadn’t felt in a very long time as Steven. It made him glow slightly brighter. He stated in a slight shaky voice. “My name is Pink…”</p><p>Pearl tensed, glaring at the pink being with flashes of her old diamond in her mind. “No you’re not. You are not Pink Diamond.”</p><p>“My name… is Pink Diamond.”</p><p>“It’s Steven Universe,” She hissed at the diamond, crossing her arms in defence. “And the sooner you accept that the sooner we can fix this nonsense.”</p><p>Garnet, Bismuth, and Lapis were the only ones who noticed how Pink’s free hand curled into a tight fist. His diamond iris eyes sharpened as his frown turned into a snarl. The gray crafter stepped forward to stop her friend. “Pearl wait please.”</p><p>Pink’s voice turned even colder, his words laced with “I am Pink Diamond.”</p><p>“Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond!”</p><p>
  <em>‘Mom was Pink Diamond…’</em>
</p><p>Steven gasped, white and pink flashing through his vision as he gripped his head at the small memory. He groaned in pain, but Pink was too upset to notice.</p><p>Peridot did and called out to him in a small fearful tone. “Steven…”</p><p>“I’m Pink diamond! I’m Steven’s Diamond! Rose no longer holds my title,” Pink’s voice was rising, his body glowing so much that it burned hot under the human copy’s hold.</p><p>“STOP IT! Stop these childless games Steven,” Pearl snapped, screaming in pure rage at this point.</p><p>“I am<b>PINK DIAMOND!!</b>”</p><p>Pink’s voice went in an echo like tone, the rage and shout turning into a sonic blast that hit everyone in the room but Steven and the diamond. He stomped his foot down when he shouted, making a small crater of splinter wood. All the bowls and windows grew cracks in them as the blast hit Pearl right into her left shoulder, causing her to scream in pain as she was thrown back on the floor. The table even knocked over along with a few chairs as it landed with a big crash. Everyone else was thrown back from the blast as if it was a massive gust of wind pushing them back. When the pink wave cleared away, the whole temple had become silent. Everyone looked at the three in shock, mouths open and too frozen to know what to do, that was until it was clear that the white gem was injured and clutching her shoulder in pain.</p><p>“Pearl!” Both Bismuth and Garnet rushed over to the gem still on the ground, helping her up to see the damage Pink may have caused.</p><p>The rest looked on with shock, but Pink was slowly coming out of his blind burning energy of rage to finally realize that his human was on his knees and clutching to the diamond in pain. Steven was in the burning heat of pink and white fire, the shocking and mentions of Rose brought so much pain to his brain that it felt like it was being cooked alive. He didn’t even notice that he had started to bite his tongue to not scream in pain, blood seeping out from his lips and down his chin and scaring the pink gem.</p><p>Pink completely forgot about his little uncharactic power and gripped his human’s shoulders in honest fear. “Steven… My Dahlia can you hear me!?”</p><p>Steven didn’t hear him, his mind playing those same words over and over again like a screaming broken record. Each time he heard though, heard what sounded like a younger version of himself, made the lava hot pain in his mind burn only hotter. The teen couldn’t stop the small shout he let out as he gripped his hair even tighter. The others turn to see when hearing the sound of pain, but the human was already in too much pain to notice them anymore. All he saw was pink and white flashes of fire and endless pain. It was like the fire was pushing something back that was trying to crawl forward to the front of his mind. Rose Quartz. The made was the fuel to the flames and yet the very thing fighting to break from the lava. He saw small images, flashes of two faces he had never seen before and yet looked so similar. Pink curly hair and soft pink with diamond irises. He didn’t know who this face was because most of it was burned by the flames in his head. He didn’t know the name and faces, or the reason behind it, but the name was so important that he felt the fire reach his heart and try to burn it to ashes. It hurt, everything in his body hurt so much now.</p><p>Peridot called out as Steven screamed again in pain while Pink was holding him close to his chest. Everyone was on edge, and Lapis had her wings summoned to get Pink away thinking that he hurt the boy too. Amethyst was quick to notice this and rush to stop the water gem from doing something stupid, the diamond holding into his hurting half tighter as he gave the blue gem a harsh glare to even dare attack him. The diamond was on edge and still very upset with what happened just moments ago, his eyes trained on everyone as he watched them carefully. Still, the gem half was sort of shocked that his powers even worked like that. Was it cause his powers were not fully operational, or was that sonic blast a power that he always had? There was much about his previous form’s life he knew nothing about when it came to his powers, but from judging the others' shocked reactions and Pearl’s wide and almost blank eyes from the attack proved they never saw this kind of thing either. Still, staring at the white gem made his body vibrate with small squeaks of anger. He didn’t care if he did hurt her. In his mind it was her fault that her Steven was in so much pain right now. The whole fight was her fault cause she shouldn’t keep her big bird mouth shut. Declaring he wasn’t a diamond, that he was Steven’s Pink. He was whatever his Dahlia wanted him to be, and he named him Pink Diamond. Everything that happened was Pearl’s fault, and from now on she was on the diamond’s mental list of danger. He didn’t want to be near her anymore than he already was. He didn’t want Steven to be near ehr either.</p><p>“P...Pink…” The diamond turned his glare from the gems to look at his human in his arms. Tears were flowing slowly down his cheeks, his brown eyes worn out and distance looking. It was clear that he was still in pain as he whimpered out, “U-Upstairs… take me upstairs…”</p><p>Saying nothing more, Pink nodded and wrapped an arm under the other’s legs to lift him up bridal style. Steven just took hold of the gem’s dark pink jacket as his head finally stopped burning in pain, but it throbbed with a horrible migraine now. Honestly it felt like he was going to puke up his dinner and he didn’t even have a full meal. His body was shivering in the aftermath, his mouth filled with blood as it was clear he had cut into his tongue.</p><p>The others saw Pink pick Steven up and now heading towards the stairs, Lapis was quick to step in between them, her water wings still out as she glared at the glowing gem. “And where the hell are you going?”</p><p>“Lapis stop,” Amethyst stepped forward to pull her out of the way before another blast started again.</p><p>“What kind of power was that? I never heard of a diamond having such a power but the ones on Homeworld,” Lapis obviously ignored the short purple quartz, jamming a finger in the other’s blant face. “What did you do to Pearl? What was that power!?”</p><p>Before Pink could speak, demanding she move, Garnet stood up from where Bismuth was helping Pearl up. Her voice firm as she said, “Lapis enough. Steven is clearly hurt and needs rest. Pink, take him upstairs.”</p><p>Lapis wanted to rebuttal, but Pink wasted no time with her to move as he shoved her to the side and helped Steven to his room. Peridot had stayed silent this whole time, seeing her blue friend growl a big in her throat and let her wings dissipate for now. It was clear from everyone she now didn’t like the diamond now more than ever. Once he was gone with his human half, Garnet took off her shades and turned back worryingly to see Bismuth hold Pearl close to her chest, careful of the injury on the gem’s left shoulder.</p><p>Pearl’s form, her jacket up to the left of her neck, was littered with small cracks.</p><p>Everyone looked at the injury with deep confusion and concern. Sure they get buries and scraps now and then, but to get damage like this shouldn’t even be possible. Bismuth took a gentle look at Pearl’s gem, seeing it as perfectly unharmed as before, it even gleamed in the light. The white gem was shaking from head to toe, trying to move her shoulder as it throbbed in pain. This was insane. Pink has healing powers, powers that defend and protect, none of them have ever heard of such a destructive power that actually injuries a gem’s light form like this. None of the Diamonds could do this, and Yellow’s power was physically ripping a light form apart until they poof. It made no sense to them how this happened or what even was that blast that Pink let out, but just looking at the spider like cracks on her shoulder came Pearl thinking back on her original copy.</p><p>Pink’s first pearl, Pink Pearl, was injured in the same way that the white pearl looked right now. Her eye was cracked, making her completely blind on the left side. She thought that came from White having been controlled by her for eight thousands years, but now seeing it on herself and Steven’s gem causing it Pearl was starting to second guess it. It was still crazy though. She knew her diamond, she knew Rose for over eight thousands years. She was made right after her original pearl was damaged, and she never saw such a violent kind of power before. Rose kept secrets and from what she now realized even secrets from her. Pearl wondered if maybe this was another secret that her previous Diamond kept under wraps. Did Pink use to have destructive powers like the other Diamonds before her? She looked at her broken shoulder with a deep frown on her face, knowing full well that this was mostly her fault.</p><p>Upstairs, Pink was quick to take off Steven’s shoes and let him lay on his bed before grabbing a rag to clean off the small amount of blood on his chin. The human teen sat up and wiped the tears in his eyes, smiling a bit at his diamond as he leaned into the small touches. A few tears shed though, the whole ordeal down stairs coming back to him full force as he tried to understand what just happened. He was just having a big dinner with the gems and his dad, wanting to get to know the family and friends that he had horrible forgotten about, and then everything just fell apart. Pearl’s words still rang in his ears to go along with the small throbs of a headache. Even after over four days of this she felt like what they were doing was wrong, and from the looks of the others they agreed. Still none of it made sense to the boy, and even as he finally started to let the small tears run down, his head was racked in confusion as to why he was even crying. All he did was call Pink his Diamond, using that he was indeed his gem and diamond through and through. His diamond didn’t own him, not like what Pearl shouted at him. Pink wasn’t Steven either. Steven was who they were together. He may not understand what fusion is or how two people can make one whole being, but Pink said that they were once one person. They were Steven, together, and now being separated they were no longer. Pink was his gem and it was his name, so what did they do wrong to make Pearl so upset.</p><p>
  <em>‘Mom was Pink Diamond…’</em>
</p><p>Steven winced, feeling the pain that came with the small memory. He said that, or at least Steven did. He wasn’t sure when or where or even what more was said, but he knew he said those words with deep sadness, hurt, confusion, and a whole lot of other mixed emotions. It was mostly hurt and sorrow, feeling like his whole life was just destroyed when saying those words. Why though? The teen couldn’t even bring it to his mind. All he knew that whoever his mother was, he had very different conflicting feelings about her.</p><p>With a small, almost subtle glance to his diamond, Steven sighed and stated, “Mom was Pink Diamond…?”</p><p>Pink flinched at that, tensing up slightly as his mind reeled back to the day they found out the truth, or rather when Steven found out the truth. Pink always knew he wasn’t a quartz, that he was stronger than a normal gem soldier but not sure which gem he was. He remembered the day before him and his human half found out. How they watched Rose convince Pearl to ‘fake her death’ before forming into Pink Diamond her last and final time. It was painful to even watch once it was realized the truth in such a way, even though it was the only want to really find out otherwise. Hearing his human said it, with the same sad emotions and hurt as before, made him realize what he meant.</p><p>“You remember.” Pink stated, knowing full well it was yes.</p><p>Steven, being careful with his cut tongue, nodded slowly. “Yes… when Pearl shouted about our mom being really Pink Diamond… I remembered those words.”</p><p>Pink tipped his head at this. “Just the words,” He asked.</p><p>“A-And the emotions,” The brunette sighed, hugging himself as he kept his voice in a soft whisper. “I… I felt so much just from saying those words. P-Pain… betrayal… but mostly sadness. Like my whole world just ended and there was nothing I could do.”</p><p>Seeing his human in such distress, Pink climbed into bed and pulled him into his arms. Steven let the gem do it while snuggling into the warm embrace. He slowly began to rub a small circle on his back as the other tried to calm down and relax completely into the comfort his diamond was giving him. They sat like this, in each other’s arms for quite some time before the diamond half spoke right into the other’s ear. “As I said before… Pink Diamond used to be the name of my former form.” He then moved his hand that was petting him to his hair, his voice gentle. “Rose Quartz… our mother, was the Pink Diamond before me.”</p><p>Steven placed his head on the other’s shoulder, frowning in thought. “So… you’re my mom?”</p><p>“No. Rose used to have our gem, but she gave up her form to give me to you. She was… erased when we were born. I only have her powers.”</p><p>“Why did she change her name? What… W-what was she like…?” Those questions caused Pink to go slightly stiff as Steven looked up at him with curious eyes. He had to pick his words carefully.</p><p>“Pink… Rose…” The diamond sat there in silence for a second, then answered slowly. “Rose changed her name because she didn’t want Pink Diamond anymore. She didn’t like her title and thus gave it up.”</p><p>Steven frowned, knowing that his diamond was keeping back from his second question but decided to not ask again. It was mostly likely not the right time to ask too much or else he’ll get triggered and hit into another fire pain. Sighing, the human half said, “I want to help fix the town tomorrow Pink. Can we?”</p><p>Pink frowned deeply at this. “It might be dangerous..”</p><p>“We can’t let the town suffer Pink,” Steven sat fully up, looking deep into those dark pink pools with his own brown pleading ones. “Please My Diamond.”</p><p>The gem half just stared into those chocolate eyes, knowing deep down that he could never say no to his other half. As much as he didn’t want his half to be around the gems tomorrow after tonight, he was right about fixing the town. The young diamond shifted his gaze down to the small drop of blood on the bottom of Steven’s lip, showing that his tongue was still bleeding pretty bad. Not thinking twice about it, Pink slowly cupped the teen’s cheeks and pulled him into a small kiss.</p><p>Steven squeaked, his cheeks turning slightly red at the warm feeling of rose petals soft lips against his own. Pink kept his eyes open as he pushed for a firmer kiss and slipped his tongue into the other’s mouth to lick the wounded tongue inside. The brunette tensed before letting out a small mewl before closing his eyes to the sweet taste that now buzzed across his tongue. Oh stars was Pink’s tongue so deadly sweet. It shocked the human half but he couldn’t find it in himself to completely complain about the feeling. Once his tongue rubbed against his own, the teen felt the whole aching in his head and the throbbing of his tongue fade away as his body no longer felt worn. He felt like he was given coffee that tasted so much like strawberries and vanilla. Not wanting to lose the taste, he pressed against Pink and moved his now healed tongue to wrap around the other’s glowing one.</p><p>Pink watched the whole time as he kissed his human, tasting the blood inside now vanish and the sweet taste of cinnamon coming into his own mouth. He let out a small sound to the taste, liking the much more than the spaghetti he just had. He saw his Stevens eyes daze out before they slipped closed and he started to kiss the Diamond back. That felt amazing, having his brunette kiss him back like made his gem flutter with a small gentle buzz. He wanted to keep going, but seeing that everything was healed and hand to pull away. It took longer to heal him, but it was worth it to see Steven with his tongue slightly out as a string of saliva connecting them before the gem licked it away. Just seeing his Dahlia all red on his cheeks and his brown eyes almost lost in bliss did something to the gem. He wanted to do more of that. To see more of that angel-like look on his man’s face. For the first time since they unfused, Pink felt his cheeks flush and his gem glowing the same pleasant buzz even more.</p><p>The brunette smiled as he moved his tongue around in his mouth to find it fully healed, looking happily at his diamond as he whispered, “Thank you my Diamond.”</p><p>Pink smiled, moving to kiss the boy’s forehead as he smiled the same soft smile back. “For you my Dahlia, anything~”</p><p>Steven chuckled before letting out a soft yawn, his body finally giving out after all the pain and strain he was put through. Seeing this, Pink quickly helped the teen out of his jeans pants to sleep comfortable in his boxers. The brunette didn’t mine, snuggling right into his pillow as he was covered by his blanket. The diamond waited to be called into bed with his human before summoning off his own own jacket and slipping inside. The two became comfortable, with Steven snuggled into the other’s chest, before the human had wished his diamond goodnight.</p><p>Pink returned the goodnight, watching his half the whole time as he finally felt his heartbeat low and finally fall to sleep. He watched his human sleep peacefully in his arms, his mind slowly turning with thoughts of everything that happened today and what would happen tomorrow. He knew that he injured Pearl with unknown powers, powers clearly offensive then defense. It was clear he had more powers than any of the gems or Steven believed he had, but what did that even mean. Well one it meant that Rose was definitely a very secretive person, lying every chance she got till her dying breath it seems. Even in her grave she is still finding a way to screw Steven over. He was much stronger than he ever thought of before, though it made a bit more sense since he had did it before when he screamed at White Diamond. Was this opposites to his own power, where there more than one, or even how many new powers may he have? So many questions that the diamond carefully fied into his mind to research later. Then his mind fell back to the human in his arms, this connection and his title that everyone hates him having.</p><p>There was no doubt in his mind that he was Pink Diamond. That was his name, his title that unlike his mother he would take with pride. It wasn’t her name anymore, hadn't been for over six thousand years, so it only made sense that he took it for himself. Still, having such a mindset was dangerous wasn’t it. He was indeed still Steven, he was more so Steven than his human half since he had more memories, but for some odd reason he too couldn’t call himself Steven. It just didn’t feel right anymore, at least not in a way the gems hoped that he cared. It felt more right to say he was Pink rather than Steven. Like in a way he was his own person.</p><p>With a small smile on his face, he stroked his human’s cheek with tender care. The reaction makes the already heavy sleeping teen to smile more and nuzzle closer. Pink loved this feeling, and he knew he was going to get so much more of it. He was in a way, his own person and he would be that person for Steven. </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The Names Holding Meaning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>‘Mom was Pink Diamond…’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>It was hot once more, burning and painful, but it wasn’t the same fire that burned within him. This pain and heat wasn’t from flames, but instead it poured on him like rain.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The water was hot and teased his skin like it was boiling wax. He tried to scream and run away from it, but it only seemed to pour faster. The droplets were even smoking and cooking his flash, making him almost want to scratch and rip his own meat off until he was nothing but bone. He felt like he was melting, wondering if dying like that was more welcoming than living through this torment. He cried, he tried too hard to scream for someone to help and save him from such harsh downpours, but something in the thick clouds above was screaming at him to stay. The winds were harsh and howling like a beast, the lighting and havey boiling water was muffling the words, but he knew something was telling him to kneel in this pool of water and his blood. Was it to kill him, to torment him into insanity? He didn’t, but he couldn’t leave the harsh rain. The voice in the cloud was telling him not to.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘Mom was Pink Diamond...’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He heard his voice within his head, echoing that same line like it was all he only knew how to say. The emotions weren’t fitting though with the pain he was enduring, but the more he let the rain cook and burn his pale skin till it bled, the more he could recall the memory behind the sentence. The emotions behind it, the hurt, the sadness and the fear that came with it. Just those four sentences alone brought in so much anger now the more he let the words fill his whole being. If it wasn’t for the slowly rising tides of the horrible boiling water pot, he would be screaming at the heating rage in his empty stomach.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘Mom was Pink Diamond…’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The water grew up to his elbows as he continued to struggle and scream under this torture, wondering now it the water was clinging to him like a doll in a baby’s fist. The pain was almost too much, he was basically pleading at this point. To die, to be let go, or something at this point just to make it all stop. He was beginning to wonder if the fire was a blessing compared to this. Any moment now and he was going to drown in this pot of heat. He didn’t want to, he didn’t want the rain to reach to his mouth and melt him from the inside out.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Why? What was this memory that was even trying to tell him? The lighting grew louder as the water became scorching hot, he truly felt like his hands and legs, now submerged in the water, had melted off completely at this point. He was being boiled alive, and the screaming silent voice in his head was ordering him to remember this line, to think harder and remember. He didn’t know what it even meant when remembering this. He knew now that his mother was Pink diamond, that Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond. She wasn’t anymore, the title no longer belonged to her anymore, so why did he need to remember something like this? Why remember a woman who obviously was long dead.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>His mom was Rose Quartz and she was Pink Diamond. He knew this, but he didn’t know anything else. Was that why he was trapped here, is that why his world was becoming a filling tank of boiling water? He knew his mother was Pink Diamond, but who was that. Who was Rose Quartz, and why… just why did the name bring him so much fury and pain all at once.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘Mom was Pink Diamond…’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘Rose wanted… urgh…. WHAT ABOUT I WANT!?’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The rain was moving faster, basically like a hurricane had hit him from all around. The water was up to his neck, his mouth opened in pure shock from the horrible scream that came from within his mind. What even was that? He was screaming, he was frustrated, and he suddenly felt the rage he had for Rose Quartz hit to new heights. He couldn’t stop it either, onne his face was submerged into the boiling pot, he heard his younger sel-No! This wasn’t him. He knew now… Onne his face was submerged into the boiling pot… he heard Steven scream even louder, and even more angrier.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘Rose wanted… urgh…. WHAT ABOUT I WANT!?’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘Rose is my mom, out of ANYONE!’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘You put us all in danger and you just…. DISAPPEARED!’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘I get it! I know what you are! You’re a LIAR!’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘You hurt EVERYONE!’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘You made me, just so you won’t have to deal with your mistakes!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He choked, he lost his breath and had let the boiling water melt and crush his lungs, but for a second he didn’t care. How could he care when this whole new pit of flames grew in his stomach. This anger, this heartbreak and this betrayal. Still, no memories came to him, just the words and the emotions behind them. He didn’t know who Steven was speaking to, or what happened for this fury of rage to cause this spiteful but truth to come forward but he knew who they were for.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Rose… His mom… was the only fuel for all of this rage to be so consuming.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He couldn’t help but scream though, scream in shock and pain and fear he felt his clogged up lungs and heart burn and be boiled alive along with him. Finally able to move his hands, only to grab at his neck and choke more for air and for this pain to fade. The last thing he heard, the only thing he could understand fully before his world turned back, was hearing Steven’s defeat sigh. The pain and anger behind it, all tied up in a worn out feeling of tiredness.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘Not surprised… I knew she was Liar…’</em>
</p><p>“Steven… Dahlia… My Dahlia please wake up.”</p><p>He took a breath, the water had vanished, the rain was gone, but he still coughed as if he was brought back from the deep depths below. It honestly felt like his body and lungs were still on fire. Still, the cool feeling soft rose petal hands on his cheek slowly wiped away the horrible torment of the nightmare to the far back department of his mind. His coughing fit quickly died down as the brunette opened his eyes to the sight of his glowing other half staring down at him. Seeing Pink there, looking at much with such concern in those diamond orbs while his face remained stoic like made the human half want to blush and smile for his diamond saving once more from his horrible nightmare. He was already leaning into his soft and warm hands. Pink was warm, but it was a warmth that he loved to fall into. It was the right temperature that could lure him to sleep, like he was being hugged and cradled with comfort.</p><p>After the small nuzzling which calmed down his rapid heartbeat, Steven groaned as he fully was awake now and sat up from his bed to yawn and stretch. Pink watched as he was now just kneeling on the bed beside him. The human teen smiled back at his stoic diamond and grumbled out, “Good morning My Diamond.”</p><p>“Good morning,” Pink nodded as he moved his hands from his human’s cheek to his slightly damp hair. “Another nightmare?”</p><p>“Yeah… but it was more than that,” Steven mumbled the last part, his mind wandering back to the nightmare he is slowly forgetting.</p><p>He was forgetting the torture, but not the sentences, not the rage he still felt now was resting inside his chest. Like a dragon taking a na before it destroys the castle once more. His Diamond must have seen his distress because he only hummed and moved to take the boy’s hand instead of asking. Steven smiled at that. He knew he would have to tell Pink later about the memories he just got, but it may be best to do it later when he wasn’t sweating and in his PJ’s. With a small tired smile on his face, he took the gem’s hand and let his Diamond lead him to the stairs and to the bathroom. It wasn’t like he really needed to be led like the first day, he knew where the bathroom was now, but felt nice to let his glowing copy help him like this.</p><p>Steven continued to smile as he held on to Pink’s hand, letting his thumb rub the soft and warm surface of his glowing skin. Once they reached down the stairs, memories of last night sort of pushed forward past his mental nightmare, and the teen couldn’t help blushing a bit as a result.</p><p>They had a fight with the gems, or in this case the white one named Pearl. It was the first time Steven finally got a memory of his former self, but all of that didn’t matter because something even better happened that night. He kissed Pink, or rather his Diamond healed his tongue with a kiss. When his mind floated back to the kiss last night he couldn’t help but feel his cheeks heat up and his heart flutter in his chest. He knew it was just a simple act to heal his almost severed tongue, but something about the contact made him feel a knot of confusion heat up in his bare stomach. He knew that Pink didn’t feel anything for the kiss, it was a way to heal, but for the human half he felt something different. Something raw and unclear, but for some reason when he felt it he wanted to turn into goo and let the act go on forever. It happened too fast though to recall, too fast to fully understand what that gnawing feeling truly was. It was raw and it burned, kind of like the feeling he got from his dreams but still very different. Does having amnesia always make emotions feel this confusing.</p><p>When they reached the bathroom, Pink had locked the door and moved to turn on the water in the shower to get it the right temperature. Steven couldn’t help but smile more at the act, removing his shirt and pants to get ready. He saw his clothing on a hanger by his towel as well, seeing that his Diamond had chosen his outfit today to be a blue star shirt and dark blue jeans. He didn’t really mind though that he did that. For some reason it just felt right to let the gem take charge in these little things. He figured it was for the best sense out of both of them, he was the one who lost his memories. He remembered when they first took a shower and his diamond tried to put it on the same temp that Steven liked, but the true Steven liked. It didn’t end up and ended up being a bit too hot for the human half, making them shift it colder for his sensitive skin. Confused,h the two just thought that maybe it was cause he was weaker without being fused anymore, whatever that means. Pink never got it wrong again, and once it was the right temp, he summoned off his clothing and pulled his human half inside to wash up.</p><p>Steven blushed a bit at the contact, but otherwise this still felt normal. It felt right to be this close to Diamond, even more so bare skinned. He was kind of happy that the gems knew not to enter the bathroom at this point, knowing they would judge at this closeness between the two. Maybe it was a bit strong to be naked under water with your clone who was also naked, but he couldn’t help but not panic about it. This was normal. When Pink took the towel and body wash to clean his body for him, it felt normal. The soft touching on his sides and arms felt normal, washing his back for him felt normal, and even letting him press closer from behind to wash his hair was natural to him. The teen just needed to be closer to his half, closer to Pink and never let go, and he knew that Pink felt the same about him.</p><p>While Pink began washing his hair, Steven keeping his eyes closed, the diamond half kept his hands slow and gentle through the soft curls as he spoke. “You had a nightmare.”</p><p>It wasn’t a question, but Steven still answered honestly, “Yeah it was another one again. I can hardly remember it all.” He sighed and kept his head steady for his Diamond, continuing to try and recall it. “I… I think some more of my memories came back to me... in the nightmare.”</p><p>He felt Pink’s fingers stop at this, most likely in shock and how to continue this new discovery. Once he felt the hands move further up in his scalp the gem said, “Do you know what memories they were of my Dahlia?”</p><p>“It was bits and pieces… Only words I-Steven had said in the past. The emotions though, they were horrible.” Steven bit his lip, trying to calm down the burning rage now resurfacing.</p><p>“Steven?”</p><p>Steven wasn’t listening, trembling at the memory. “It was burning, it burned my skin like boiling water. The rage, the hurt, the betrayal, the sadness. It hurt so much it felt like it was consuming me. S-She was consuming me and all I could do was scream.”</p><p>Pink raised his hands and turned the human half to hold his face in his hands, the act made Steven gasp and lean into the touch as the warmth of him washed away the boiling aftermath in his chest. He couldn’t open his eyes though, knowing that the shampoo was still in his hair and it was already dripping down. It didn’t matter though, even though he couldn’t see Pink, just feeling his thumbs stroke his cheeks was enough to make him slowly calm down again.</p><p>After a few more moments of this, silence between them besides the water and Steven’s slow breathing, Pink moves his hands gently down to his shoulders. He helped guide his human half into the stream to rise off the soap in his hair, still silent but the tension in the air had long since faded away. Once he was done with his hair, Pink shut off the water and helped his still blind human out of the tub to dry off. Steven wanted to speak, wanted to say sorry and tell the real truth of the dream, but as he opened his mouth his Diamond placed a finger on his lips. The act made him gasp and tense at the gentle touch. How can anyone find Pink scary when he was so gentle like this?</p><p>Knowing he didn’t want to talk right now, Steven nods and lets Pink dry him off. Again the teen couldn’t help but sigh at the contact, feeling the knot in his stomach grow but a warmth comfort in his chest pulse with it. Even with his eyes closed, covered in water, he felt nothing but calmness and how right this all was. It felt right to do this with Pink, to feel his gentle yet hands hand wrap around his shoulders and elbows. It felt right to feel him move around his back and chest all the down to his legs and feet. It honestly felt like he was being dried off and yet getting a message all over at once, and it almost made him feel like goop at the whole thing. He honestly thought he would never get tired of this contention with Pink, this feeling of trust and something so much deeper. When he opened his eyes finally after his Diamond cleaned them up, he only felt that contention grow when looking right deep into his fuchsia colored eyes. How can anyone find Pink creepy when he was so beautiful at first sight?</p><p>Steven couldn’t help but smile softly at his other half, taking in Pink’s whole face as it glowed with something so close to stars in the void of space. Everyone said how much they look alike as well, but looking deeper into his face, he relaxed that his gem had small differences compared to his own face. With the teens own hair was curly and more tightly curled inward, he saw that Pink’s hair was more so curls but blooming out like roses on a bush. When walking, it was clear to see his hair bounce and sway in the wind much more gracely while he always seemed to stay in place. Their faces were almost instantly too, but the big difference was the beautiful bright fuchsia eyes. The pupils four sided and cut into the most beautiful diamonds he had ever seen, and the irises seem to glow with it’s own different light. They were eyes that drew anyone who stared at them in, deeper and deeper till it almost like staring into a never ending void. For him though, he saw so much in his Diamond’s eyes and how easy he was laying his emotions bare to his human half. His cheeks were just as smooth looking and pinchable like his, nose so cute and arguably easy to boop at, and then his eyes trailed down to his lips which looked so soft and warm, plush, and delicate.</p><p>“Steven.” The teen snapped out of his deep thought, seeing Pink giving him a knowing smile at the obvious hungry stares he was giving the gem. He said pretty bluntly, “You were staring at my lips for a pretty long time.”</p><p>That only made his blush grow more red and reach his ears. Steven started to stammer an apology, though he honestly didn’t feel like that. “I-I’m sorry Pink! I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I-I j-just was think of-”</p><p>Pink just rolled his eyes and placed his finger on his half’s lips again, reminding himself how so similar they were to his own. “It’s okay My Dahlia, I was staring too.”</p><p>“O-Oh…” Why did hearing that made Steven’s legs feel like jello?</p><p>“We need to get you dressed. The others will be coming out soon,” Pink stated as his smile flattered a bit and he helped his half get dressed.</p><p>Once they were done dressing up, Steven had taken Pink’s hand in his and they both went outside the bathroom to make breakfast. Right away, they saw Amethyst and Garnet in the kitchen making breakfast for them already. When the four made eye content, the teen could feel the small tension build back up. Ever since last night, he honestly couldn’t blame anyone for it. Maybe the Pearl, but she was dealt with so she doesn’t matter right now. Wasn’t here anyway to brother him and his Diamond.</p><p>Whoa… where did those last thoughts come from?</p><p>“Hey guys,” Amethyst called over to the two as they came over. She flashed them a smile and said, “Took a while in the shower huh?”</p><p>Steven tried very hard to hide his blush, smiling softly. “Yeah sorry about that. I woke up a bit late.”</p><p>“I don’t blame you due, last night was crazy…” Her voice got a bit softer at that last word, but she quickly coughed and jabbed an elbow at Garnet, who was finishing up breakfast.</p><p>“We made you both breakfast since it looked like you needed a long shower,” Garnet stated without missing a bit. Pink was even a bit surprised how calm she was. “We even made your favorite Steven.”</p><p>That hit the boy a weird way, but he shrugged and sat at the table since his stomach started to kick at him to eat something at this point. “Sweet! What is it?”</p><p>Amethyst quickly took the plate from Garnet’s hands and slammed it to the table in front of the two boys, causing the human half to flinch a bit at the big nose as she declared, “Together Breakfast!”</p><p>The only thing that can decide this was a big, messy, pile of sugar. Honestly Steven sure though he just had a heart burn from the sight of it alone. It was a three stacked tower of melting butter and so much maple syrup that it was making a pool on the plate. Looking closer, he saw that it was three stacks of Donut waffles topped with so much whipped cream that it was kind of making him stomach chun. He also saw that there was popcorn littered all over it as well, just plain white fluff popcorn which most likely shouldn’t even be on waffles for breakfast. The only thing that looked good was the strawberry on top. Even though it looked like a volcano of sugar and syrup, Steven couldn't help but feel something when looking at it. This held something in his chest, and the name of it made him smile a bit at the small warmth from it. Maybe he had this all the time when he was a kid or something similar to it, but he still couldn’t bring himself to eat it.</p><p>Pink must have seen him in a bit of distress looking at the plate and gently pushed it back to Amethyst. He said pretty bluntly to the confused gems, “Too much sugar. He doesn’t want it.”</p><p>“What?” Amethyst looked a bit offended at the pink gem, glaring a bit as she crossed her arms. “Dude, I get that you are protective of yourself but you can’t boss Steven around.”</p><p>“He doesn’t want it.” Pink stated once more, basically not even fully listening anymore.</p><p>Garnet cleaned the kitchen and came over to place a hand on Steven’s shoulder, making him look up at her. “Do you want something else Steven,” She asked.</p><p>Steven looked at her with a sense of confusion, then looked at Pink to see that he wasn’t shocked or worried about the human’s choice. He honestly didn’t want such a sugary breakfast, even more so since they have to go out to fix the town. With a little apologetic smile, he said sadly, "Honestly, I rather have a protein shake."</p><p>Pink had smiled with a slightly puffed a chest before walking over to the coffee maker while Amethyst just frowned and groaned at the teen's answer. Steven still flashed the purple gem a sorry look as he watched Garnet take the plate and wrap it up in plastic before putting it in the fridge for him to eat on a later date. He got up and walked over to his Diamond when he saw him already putting the protein into the heated water before closing and shaking the container.</p><p>Amethyst just huffed on the table. "Man, I'm starting to hate that you started to drink that stuff Steven," She pouted with an unimpress tone.</p><p>"I never knew I started drinking these, though I must have since Pink pulled the stuff out." Steven said as he took the bottle and sipped the shake, smiling more at the sweet Cookies and Cream flavor.</p><p>The glowing pink gem just smiled and twirled a piece of his human's curly hair between his fingers. "For about two months from now. We were even thinking of going veganintain as well though it wasn't set in stone."</p><p>"Seriously," The purple made a noise of surprise, looking kind of bummed with the pink being nodded. "First no fun time breakfast and now this."</p><p>"Protein shakes promotes muscle gain and improve performance and recovery as well as help with weight loss." The Diamond half stated, turning around to unplug the coffee machine. "Those waffles are too sugary and right now, My Dahlia is on a diet."</p><p>"Jeez dude, no need to be so bossy. Are all Diamonds this controlling?"</p><p>Steven felt it again, it jolted in his chest. He felt annoyance and slight rage. The same emotions from last night. Before he could stop himself, the human half glared and stated bitterly, "Better than being lair now is it?"</p><p>It was like a switch went off. Pretty much right after he said that the other gems all turn to face him with looks of utter shock. Steven was confused for only a second before he replayed the milliseconds before, his right hand quickly rose up to barely graze his bottom lip. He knew what he said triggered something, he knew that his words came out so spiteful was due to a trigger. The negative emotions from before vaperated as quickly as it came. It terrified the human half a bit how his heart and mind did that to him. The small changes in emotions, the heat and small flickers of images that could come out of nowhere, it was like he was losing control of himself. The teen didn't even remember that it was him that said that. It honestly felt like someone else just used his vocal cords, that whoever came forward to use his tongue wasn't the same person who was standing there and looking at the gem's shocked expressions.</p><p>His fear and shock must be on his face as well, cause Pink quickly dropped his look of shock before grabbing a hold of his human's hand to pull away from his mouth. Amethyst just gave a deep look of guilt and honest conflict on her face, like she didn't know whether to be happy that Steven remembered something or upset that she brought up that memory. The purple gem was the only one beside the half boys that those words were very similar to the ones he said a little over two years ago. That pizza visit was still fresh in her mind now that she heard that same bitterness and spite pour out of her friend's mouth like venom. It kind of made her feel guilty cause she felt like she was the cause for most of that resentment. Garnet of course looked more shocked and even intrigued by the tone the human half took when saying that. It reminded her of when he fought with the fusion on the day Blue Diamond came to Earth. The way he said it too also lead to the fact that the boy knew something, he had gain memories, and from the look of worry on his face he was trying to keep it a secret. Maybe he had gain memories after the small fight with Pearl. It is a possibility, but the tall fusion knew that this was a much early breakthrough than she had predicted before.</p><p>Steven bit his lower look, breaking his gaze away from Pink to look at Amethyst. "I-I'm sorry for snapping like that..."</p><p>Before she could even think of a way to reply, Pink quickly pulled his half into a soft embrace. "It's okay My Dahlia. It was just another memory relapse."</p><p>That peaked up Garnet's shock more and this point she couldn't keep quiet. "Another?' She looked between both of the boys, asking, "You had gain some of your memories back?"</p><p>"Um... N-Not really. Just bits and pieces... more so emotions around the memory," Steven mumbled a bit, gripping his shake tightly in his hand to stop the small shaking in them.</p><p>The fusion tapped her chin, walking around the counter to get closer to them. "Can you describe them for me Steven?"</p><p>Pink asked right when he felt the teen tense in his hold. "No, he will not."</p><p>"Huh Pink-ster..."Amethyst stood up as well, raising her hands in a defensive manner. "We kind of need to know, so we know that the attack that crazy gem from last week is wearing off."</p><p>"No," He felt his half practically screaming in his head that he wasn't ready yet. "It isn't even a real memory. Just emotions, and you are scaring him hounding on him like this."</p><p>"Pink please this is between us and Stev-"</p><p>The human teen cut off Garnet before she could even speak further. "N-No. Pink is right. I'm not ready to talk to you guys about it."</p><p>Garnet frowned at this. "Steven-"</p><p>"Besides I only need to talk to our Dad and Dr. Maheswaran about any of this. You guys don't need to know any of this," Steven stated firmly as he gave a deep gaze to the two older gems, showing them that this wasn't the time or the place to even argue with him or Pink.</p><p>Garnet wanted to say more, do more to help, but the glares she was getting from both of the teens silenced her voice. Not just that, but she could tell that Amethyst was also tense about this conversation from the looks of it. This wasn't over, but right now it was better not to talk more with such tension. Sighing, she nodded and said, "Alright Steven. I apologise for probing into such a sensitive topic. Let's get to work instead."</p><p>The boy's face quickly melted into a smile as he nodded and went to grab his sneakers. his pink copy follows with a soft look on his face, happy that his human can calm down now. Steven ignored the small glances between the two older gems as he grabbed his blue and white sneakers he left by the door. He went to put them on, but Pink halted his hands, kneeling down to help tie the shoes for him. The boy paused at this, shocked but not stopping his Diamond as he let him hold his right foot in his warm soft hands. He watched with a small smile on his face. Seeing Pink carrying such a soft look on his face had brought such a small warmth to the human teen the more he looked into those fuchsia eyes. For some reason it bought some sense of remembrance, drawing him back to the small words he still remembered from his nightmare.</p><p>
  <em>‘Mom was Pink Diamond…’</em>
</p><p>Pink had confirmed this, even the gems did at the dinner argument, but Diamond also stated that their mom and himself are two different people. He wasn't the old Pink diamond, the name was left in the history he no longer knew about. Still if such a name was left even by his mom to forget, so much so that her supposed family called her Rose now, then how much was the name he gave his half? Steven couldn't explain it really. He only said that name when he woke up slightly dazed and in such pain, but it was something that just clicked into place when he saw the pink angel before him. Indeed, he was pink in color, and his eyes were diamonds but there was so much more to all of this. He was more than just a glowing pink copy of himself, more than the title of his gemstone was. The name just felt different when he used it on his other half than thinking about it attached to his mother.</p><p>
  <em>‘You put us all in danger and you just…. DISAPPEARED!’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘I get it! I know what you are! You’re a LIAR!’</em>
</p><p>The pain, the rage, the frustration and the mixed sense of deep loathing betrayal. Steven couldn't really understand how all of these emotions he was feeling when thinking of his mom could be so negative. He felt them stabbing at his heart like thrones to a rose bush, heat spreading to his heart and stomach that it made his blood pump five miles a minute. These emotions, the screams of a younger sound Steven, made him only wrack his brain with so many questions. Why did these emotions only seem to revolve around his mother? Why in this sliver of memory did he sound fed up with his mother? She was a lair, a coward, a manipulator. She was beloved, her face is a painting on his wall, she was someone special to that Pearl. These things didn't mix, it didn't fit correctly with what his memories and nightmares were telling him. This couldn't be right though, but his heart was telling him otherwise. Was there anything deeply positive or loving when he thinks of Rose, when Steven thinks of Rose? Nothing. Maybe he just needs to remember those emotions differently than how he remembered the bad ones though. Even if Rose Quartz was a horrible person she was still his mother, and that meant that there would be some sort of love or compassion for her deep within his damaged mind.</p><p>Still, even if that was true, he wondered why he named his Diamond after his mother. Rose Quartz may have changed her name, but it was clear that everyone still puts it with her and her alone. When looking at Pink though, seeing him carefully and gracefully tie his laces, it sparked something so differently from the heat he felt when thinking of Rose Quartz. This heat, this touch to his heart, was like a soft petal kiss. While the Pink rose of his mother carried thrones as he held it in his hands, his other half only carried the soft delicate petals to wipe away the pain. The old Pink Diamond was different from the Pink Diamond he is watching now work on his left foot. This one didn't bring him pain, instead this one only made Steven feel a wide and welcoming smile lift up on his face.</p><p>
  <em>'I knew she was Liar…’</em>
</p><p>Yes, maybe Pink Diamond was a lair but not this one. This Pink Diamond, his sweet Pink, was only kind and carrying to the human teen. He has never once lied to Steven, never once tried to disappear or even brings a sense of rage or betrayal when looking into his eyes; eyes he bet were the same eyes of his mother's.</p><p>It's true that Steven didn't know the full truth of his mother, so he can't hate or like her yet. How could he when he doesn't even remember her? However the same can't be said about Pink. Feeling this warmth, seeing those eyes, and even remembering the small kiss they shared last night had changed what he may have felt about Pink Diamond all before him. He knew that his Diamond wasn't his mother, wasn't someone else, but instead his. Pink belonged to Steven. That's why he picked that name that night, cause when he looked into Pink's eyes he didn't see someone like her but instead someone else who didn't have a name to call his own. Maybe it wasn't a unique name but it is the name somehow the teen half knows the glowing pink gem will make his own.</p><p>As Pink finished tying his shoes, both Amethyst and Garnet were already out the door to see the others at the beach. The Diamond looked up to see his human half blushing but smiling so lovingly at down at him it brought the gem to tense slightly. He had never seen such a face on his half before, not even with the gems or Connie. It was different, raw, and so new he honestly didn't think that his half could carry such an angelic look. It somehow made him heat up on his own cheeks, his gem humming with a warm heat.</p><p>Steven didn't even know what face he made, but seeing his Diamond start to blush a brighter glow made him chuckle. He gently touched Pink's cheek, stroking the very warm surface as he smiled on his shocked expression. The two just stayed like that for what seemed like hours. if anyone walked in and saw, the very despection of the whole scene would be a diamond kneeling to a human.</p><p>The scene broke when they heard Amethyst call out to them from outside, making Steven pull his hand away from his dazed out Diamond. "Hey Steve-man! Pinkster! You wanna help or not?"</p><p>"Coming!" Steven called out before he stood back up on his feet, taking Pink's hand as he stood up as well. "Let's go Pink!"</p><p>Pink was still shocked by what he just saw seconds ago, but quickly flashed the same smile back at his half and nodded. "Yeah," he said softly as he followed his half out of the Temple.</p><p>When they turned to leave out the door, neither noticed the slight trip up of the former as he kicked back some worn out rouge colored sandals.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey Guys! Sorry for the long wait, but I hope this chapter of Steven's sort of POV bring you guys some sort of excitement. </p><p>Obviously the next one will be Steven and Pink finally interacting with the other members of Beach City and what they think of this strange event. I would love for you guys to say what you think would happen. Who do you want the two to meet first while helping out Beach City? Let me know in the comments!</p><p>Keep Feeling The Flow!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. The Limits They Can't Take</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Guys...</p><p>I AM SOOO SORRY!!</p><p>I was writing chapter seven and COMPLETELY forgot that I never posted chapter six! I wrote this at the same time I had my depression break down and let it unpublished. I am so sorry!! This demon is so fucking stupid.</p><p>Anyway, still working on chapter seven so enjoy chapter six guys!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Honestly both Garnet and Amethyst felt so much sense of deja vu when seeing Steven so excited to help them on basically his first mission. It just brought so much fond memories seeing such a mature boy flung back to when he was twelve with such awe and excitement in his eyes, even without the stars in his eyes.</p><p>The first thing the gang did once the two boys came out to the rest of the group, all seven of them went straight to the Lighthouse where the source of most of the destruction lay. Steven was practically bouncing with each step as his hand held onto his gem's tightly through the whole walk. Pink wasn't smiling, which wasn't new for any of them to see. Compared to everyone else though, Both Lapis and Bismuth were pretty much distant from the two. Though while with Peridot it was more so fear of the glowing pink gem, with them it was obvious tension. The two other crystal gems knew that there would be tension coming from those two, unease and otherwise just deep unease and disgust. Though honestly none of them could blame them for their feelings.</p><p>Well deep down Amethyst was sort of blaming Lapis. Ever since last night and seeing how defensive she was with Pink, it was clear that she didn't like the pink gem. Now she doesn't really like the diamond that much either, seeing how distrusting he is with them, but the way the blue gem was almost venomous towards them. It sat a bad taste in her mouth, the same bad taste that happened last night with Pearl. With Bismuth it more so showed after the whole event last night. It was no brainer that the crafter cared deeply for the white gem, and now that she is injured in some strange way caused by Steven's obvious unstable side kept her on her toes. She no longer trusted the pink gem, but she was more concerned and worried of another outbreak than Lapis. She hated this and she knew that everyone else did as well, but her and Garnet knew taking this slow was the best option. Even with the rest all on edge.</p><p>As they reached the massive hole in the center of the Hill, a massive gasp came from Steven as they laid their eyes on it. honestly, the whole area just looked like a nasty wound or scar. The hole was about six feet deep and five or so feet in diameter. The soil was completely black with a nesty violet glow in the crackings of the obvious dried out dirt. The green lushest grass had all turned into such a gerish dying much under their feet, like the life was sucked right out of the sun kissed flowers that now laid with such a sickening state. Seeing the glowing stuff put Pink on guard as he stood between the massive thing and his human. The rest has all held grim and even irritated looks as they stared at the ruin ground. IOn fact, seeing more into it, the human teen saw that the glowing purple had sunk down on the side of the hill. Turning to stare at the town down below, he saw with wide brown eyes at the sand near the town now looked like black rock that crumbled at even the slight step. A few buildings were sinking into the very ground and crumbling away. The destruction was massive, horrible, and it left a terrible jolt of guilt just staring at it all.</p><p>"H-How...." Steven swallowed the lump in his throat, turning back to Garnet and the others. "H-How are we supposed to fix this?"</p><p>Garnet shifted her shades and answered firmly. "It looked much worse Steven. Lapis and Peridot were able to remove the drill and most of the poison into a nearby star. This is only the remaining corrupted soil."</p><p>"This is insane!? How do you think that Pink and I can fix this place? We can't do anything," He didn't sound angry when he said this, just mostly pained and worried.</p><p>Lapis just scoffed and rolled her eyes, her arms crossed as she pointed out with a bored tone. "That jem has healing powers," She told Pink, who just looked at her with a blank look. "He can heal anything. Even bring people back to life."</p><p>Steven's eyes widened and turned to look at Pink with their hands still held. "Really?"</p><p>"...Yes," The diamond mumbled, not looking at his human as he kept staring at the blue water witch. "But our power was affected by Spinel's attack. Our power doesn't work the same right now."</p><p>"Oh don't give Steven that crap. You can cry and make this whole place good as new, so don't act like you're weak!" Lapis snapped back harshly, not noticing how her tone put the two boys in deep unease about her.</p><p>Not wanting last night to be repeated, Garnet just stepped in with a hand on the slightly shorter gem's shoulder. "Bismuth had stated that all gems are affected by the rejuvenator on contact. With Pink it was his power," He turned over to the boys. "Nevertheless, we did see that some of your power has returned, so we at least have to try this."</p><p>Pink just frowned at this, taking in Garnet's words a bit as his mind wandered. His power wasn't back, though it was never fully gone either. It was more so weakened in a way, glitchy and uneven. He had no doubt that if he stayed fused with his human his powers would be completely gone as he would work on sustaining his human. Without the need to give that much energy to keep his human alive, it was clear that he can use some of his powers though not for a long time at all. He can't even form a bubble for more than a second. Healing might be an even bigger issue, as it seems that it takes a minute or two to heal something. When he kissed Steven last night, it took a while to completely heal his tongue and remove the blood. When fused they can only heal a small patch of anything, much less a whole city. Plus that unknown power he had last night was due to just pure raw emotion of rage, so there was no way he was letting his temper mess with him again. The Diamond half honestly didn;t believe this to work.</p><p>He was still going to try though for his human. Steven wanted to help the town, and honestly it was one of the few things he truly loved about his human. He held compassion where it seemed like Pink lacked such a thing. He has a big heart, one that needs to be protected at all cost. If his human desired that he heal the whole planet the gem would do it without a single thought. Still healing all of this in one day may be completely impossible, but doing some was better than none.</p><p>Without much said, Pink gently let's go off his human's hand, giving it a small kiss, before walking over to stand on some of the ruined black and gery ground. Steven watched, a small dust of pink on his cheek, and saw his gem kneel down to the ground and licked his lips. With wide eyes, the brunette saw the pink gem lower down and gave the ground a big massive smooch. Right away nothing happened, but after a second kiss the ground around the gem started to glow and flash pink and white. Right before the human brunette's eyes he saw the black and gery death of the ground slowly start to grow and fade into a bright green flush. It was almost a hypnotic state seeing the small patch of grass grow the more he kissed the ground, slowly pulling up as a small yellow flower popped out and bloomed right from under his lips. Amethyst gave a small cheer and pumped her fist up in what seemed to be victory, along with pulling Peridot into a small bear hug. Garnet smiled a bit on her stoic face as Bismuth gave what looked to be a sign of relief, Lapis's face was just very blank and hard as ever.</p><p>Steven didn't care though what their reaction to this was, cause as he saw Pink get up and kiss another patch of grass he was just feeling giddy with awe and joy. This time it did take a bit longer for him to get another green grass patch but none of that mattered to the teen. Seeing something so beautiful and lively come from his other half made his heart flutter with mixed emotions. He already knew that his Diamond had healing powers, that they were also his power (whatever that meant), but really seeing such a thing happen in front of him almost seemed like science fiction. Such life and beauty could be made just from a kiss, a peck to the soils of mother earth. For some reason that just brought the young teen to the night before, feeling those soft and sweet lips on his own. The power behind the kiss they shared was more than just the small tingling of his cells stitching back together, but it was almost a fulfilling feeling. The singal kiss almost made him feel like he was being brought back to life. Suddenly the teen felt like he was just like those flowers and grass. Though Pink's kiss, it felt like he was being reborn again. He smiled softly, moving his fingers to gently touch his upward lips as he wondered when he might get another one.</p><p>The thought came to a halt though when he saw the glowing pink gem started to dim slightly. Steven stood straight, confused but grew to quick concern when he saw Pink wobble on his feet to move to the next black patch of death to kiss. The glowing hue of the diamond was dimming so fast it was like he was sucking out his life. A sudden jolt of fear came to him seeing this, along with a sharp lava pain through his vision, remembering something as he looked at his half.</p><p>
  <em>'I... I need it...'</em>
</p><p>"Pink!" Steven raced over to his Diamond, shocking the gems who were also seeing the dimming of the gem.</p><p>The pink diamond just fell to his knees, moving to kiss the ground as he felt the warm touch of his human grab hold of his shoulders. It was like the touch alone broke the small haze he had when he started healing the ground of the organic poison. Pink gasped, though he didn't really need air. His body jolted and shuddered horribly as he started to cling to his human's shirt to stop the feeling. He felt tired, glitchy, almost like he was going to poof any minute. It took a moment for the gem to even see that his glowing body had stopped glowing and was now just a dark pink hue.</p><p>"S-Steven..." Pink mumbled in some shock of fear, panting slightly as he kept clinging to his human's shirt. "I... I c-can't..."</p><p>"Yo! What the hell happened to Pinkster," Amethyst asked as the rest of the gems came over to see what happened to the Diamond.</p><p>Steven kneeled down to his Diamond, holding his trembling body as he shook his head. "I don't know. After that third kiss healing, he started to dim and I knew that something was wrong. I-Is this a gem thing or something?"</p><p>Garnet frowned, taking a look of the dull looking boy being held by his worried human half. She answered honestly, "No, we do get tired but our forms never really glow or dim like his. I believe it's because you are both two halves of the same whole."</p><p>Peridot frowned as she rubbed her hands together, looking very concerned at the two. "What happens now?"</p><p>"That rejuvenator affected the little guy more than we thought," Bismuth stated, frowning as well with a sigh. "He's power isn't fully back, and he can heal the rest of the town like this."</p><p>Pink had stopped panting, but his body still shook a bit in his other's hold. "I c-can't help... p-power... low..."</p><p>Steven starts to tear up, clinging to his diamond tightly as he looks up frightfully at the others. "Will he be okay!? He... H-He looks like he's dying... I-" He was stopped gently by a small hand from Bismuth who was the closest to them.</p><p>She gave him a comforting smile as she took a look at the now dull pink gem in his arms. His shirt was hiked up a bit, showing that his gem seemed normal as ever. Not a scratch or crack, but then she remembered what may have been causing this. With a sigh, the multi colored haired gem said softly, "Relax little friend. It looks like he might just need a bit of a break."</p><p>Garnet nodded in agreement, looking at the town as it was starting to get busy with gems and humans rebuilding. She turned back to the two and smiled, "Perhaps you two should take a break, grab a bite to eat. I'm sure that Pink will feel better if he did."</p><p>The brunette frowned a bit at this, thinking that it might be better to just head home and lat Pink take a nap. He was about to suggest that, but the pink gem in his arms nodded with the fusion. "Y-Yeah... that sounds really nice..." the diamond mumbled a bit, looking up at his human half to smile softly. "We can try some of Lars' ube. It was your favorite Dahlia."</p><p>Steven bit his lip, looking at his Diamond with deep concern. He looked so weak and even a bit lifeless, a deep sense of dread in his heart as the look gave him a flash of a younger looking version of himself. He could hardly stand without the teen's help. It was just better for him to take a nap and stay in the house for the rest of the day, but just from the small look of despair in his Diamond's eyes held him back from rebuttal. He really wanted them to hang out around Beach City, even though last night he was against it out of worry for his human. Was this just to please him? To help with his memories?</p><p>It didn't really matter to figure out the answers. Whatever his other half wanted to do, he would do it. Pink already did so much for him, so Steven might as well return the favor.</p><p>"S-Sure," The brunette slowly nodded, smiling softly as he helped his half to his shakey feet. "It would be so weird to say hello to our friends for the first time again huh?"</p><p>Pink gave back the smile. "Knowing you, you'll do just fine."</p><p>'You knew Steven...' He just forced his grin and squeezed his other's hand. "Yeah!"</p><p>Lapis tensed and flashed a bit of a glare at the two, turning to Garnet with an irritated tone. "Are you really going to let... that thing alone with Steven?"</p><p>Garnet just nodded. "Yes. If anyone can protect Steven, it's his gem."</p><p>The blue gem just frowned at this, her fingers clenching even harder on her forearms as they watched Steven slowly help his gem down the hill. The only gem that seemed to notice the small tense questure was the purple quartz, but she stayed quiet as Garnet started talking up new orders to help save the town. There were plans to take some of the tears from Rose's old fountain, but only some much can be taken from the thing. Amethyst was only half listening as she took glances to the slightly rebuilt town down below.</p><p>It's just so different now, so upsetting and displeasing to look down at the town. Just last week, it was as peaceful as before. After over a thousand years of her fighting off gem monsters, seeing the angelic gem that saved her, gave up her life for even a more beautiful angel, and dealing with even more crazy monsters and evil tyrants. So much had happened for the purple quartz, but honestly it felt more relief to see her brother finally able to lay back and relax from it all. She was made to be a soldier, to never stop fighting, so when the fight was over he honestly felt nothing for it. She was fine with fighting, and she is just as fine not fighting and taking a nap. It was different though when she saw Steven finally smile at them, finally let go of the over four years of heart squeezing trauma and danger. Amethyst watched the young heart felt the boy grow and become brave enough to stand in front of her and the others, to hold his own against the impossible. Seeing him finally at peace, finally happy, was like she felt joy and happiness as well. Before she was content with life, not she felt ready for anything just as long as she knew the young hybrid was grinning that star grin as well.</p><p>Now, things were different. Just as she saw that star filled grin, a big pink drill and scythe came from behind and attacked him. Amethyst had to watch in horror ro see him in such a state; screaming and glowing violent pink as he struggled and spamsed on the floor before them. Now Steven was walking and talking again, but it was like staring at a whole new person. It the quartz, it was like her brother was dead and this new copy was trying to replace what was there. Though it was pretty obvious that he was having trouble doing that himself. She hated it. After all he had been through with the stupid war, identity crisis, and fixing a whole ruined empire, all she wanted was to see him whole and happy. Not he was broken and honestly who knows what he was feeling.</p><p>What upset her more was how much the others we're handling it. Garnet was holding back on stepping in to help, and while she felt that it was a good idea to not get into Pink's bad side, Amethyst wasn't still sure of that. Should they rush it or let it fix on it's own? Lapis was pretty much giving out mixed signals that just screamed wrong. It reminded her of Pearl's little outburst last night, but more so violent in a way. Still, she knew better than to step into a fight with the water witch near an ocean. Peridot and Bismuth were on the fence, but clearly wanted to help. None of them knew what to do, and sadly, that feeling was all too familiar.</p><p>"Hey..." Amethyst snapped out of her deep thoughts, turning to see Peridot behind her. She looked nervous, holding her tablet close to her chest.</p><p>"Yeah Peri?"</p><p>She bit her lip and looked in the direction where Steven and Pink just left, moving a piece of her soft blonde hair that blew in the wind. "Do... Do you think Steven and Pink will be okay?" She hugged her tablet tighter. "After everything that happened... Do you think Steven will get his memories back?"</p><p>Amethyst looked at her a bit in an understanding way. Maybe she wasn't on the fence as much as she thought before. For Peri, like her, she was just scared and at a loss on what to do. Times like this she wished Steven was back in their corner.</p><p>Smiling brightly, hiding her own fear, the purple exclaimed confidently, "You bet Peridot! You know as well as I that Steven can bounce right back from this. Just you wait!"</p><p>Peridot flashed a tiny smile with her words, but even Amethyst knew they didn't really help much. Still, she believed in them just as much as she knew the green gem did. Steven will bounce back from this. It just might take longer than they thought. </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. The Fries, Ube, and Onion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey guys! Hope you enjoy this more heartfelt chapter!</p><p>Get Set To Get Decked!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Walking on the boardwalk was both a familiar and yet new experience all at once.</p><p>For Pink, it was really nothing new to him in the sense of remembering the buildings and the citizens. He knew where the Big Donut was and that Mr. Dewy was the main manager of the whole place, with Lars working temporarily. He knew about the arcade and thought that him and the gems were still band from for another decade, or that Fish Stews house not only the Mayor of the town but his two favorite twins. He knew every crack and vender machine of the broadwalk and thus most of the town. Still, it was nice to finally see with his own eyes, walk with his own legs on the wooden surface, and even use his own hands to hold on to Steven's. While they were fused, he never once thought of himself separate from his human half, believing that everything they went through they went through together as one being. Now though, being solely the gem piece, it was like finally being on set after watching it all through a screen. Different but still so wonderfully the same.</p><p>That honestly couldn't be said the same with his human half though. For Steven, it all felt new, nerve wracking, and exciting to see home town all at once. He knew he was born in Beach City, he knew this was the place he grew up in and that everyone knew who he was supposed to be, but honestly it didn't stop his bubbling sense of wonder. In a way, it was like waking up in a coma since birth. The only downside was that he was seeing his hometown for the first time, but under repairs after a terrible destruction had fallen onto it. He knew deep down that the Big Donut should be looking close to crumbling, or seeing the bags of concrete and piles of wood for rebuilding, or even see the stress of running back citizens and gems all around. Still, there was open wonder for all of this even if mixed with guilt and loss, but holding onto his Diamond seemed to ground the confused teen. Looking at Pink, much dimmer than this morning, and seeing that he was firm and similar with the place just seemed to settle a bit of the guilt. He felt an urge to help the strangers rebuilt, to try and lift their spirits up with a smile and powerful words, even to kiss the damage and make it all better. It was strange, but he wondered if it was just lingering feelings of before he lost his memories.</p><p>Shaking his head clear of those silly thoughts, Steven bounced in his step as they walked slowly through the broadwalk. A small pink on his cheek as he took a step closer to his more so stoic other. If it wasn’t for the fact of the ruined town or his Diamond being weak, the young teen would honestly think of this as a date. Though that was silly since his memories are shot and they were basically the same person, sort of. Still, it was a nice thought.</p><p>Looking around more, the young human half tapped his chin and hummed in thought. “My Diamond,” He asked his other half. “Since you are a bit duller, do you know anyway to get… ya know… power I guess?”</p><p>Pink looked at his Steven with a blank look, but his half knew he was more so thinking in his own head about that question. To be honest with himself, it came to the young diamond’s mind. Now that he is his own person, he had to give himself power in his own way instead of relying on his human to do that for them. He could try and eat some food, but he was a full gem now and he was pretty sure that dinner last night didn’t really refuel him in any way. Does the power just… naturally replenish itself in his gem? It could be a possibility, but the gem knew he wasn’t a normal gem either and he knows that in this strange connection, he needs to be near his human as well. Not just for protecting him, but in a way of keeping his own self alive as well. In the gem’s database, Pink honestly had no way to answer this question.</p><p>Tipping his head slightly to the side, the gesture cute to the human, Pink’s eyes blinked once before shrugging. “I am not sure My Dahlia. I am a gem, but I am also you. You use to eat and sleep to keep us powered up.”</p><p>“Really?” Seeing his gem half nod made Steven frown in utter confusion and guilt. “Wow, so you really didn’t have a say and we ate and stuff while we were… one person? That sounds really selfish of me.”</p><p>“I didn’t mind Steven. I was happy as long as you were happy,” The pink copy smiled softly at his own words, but it only made the human shake his head more.</p><p>“Yeah well, I’m not happy if you are pushed to the side while we are one! So…” He perked up and grinned at his shocked diamond. “You can pick what we eat today for an early lunch!”</p><p>Pink’s eyes widen even more at this, starting to feel mostly just shocked and out of place. He gets to choose where they eat, but where would he even pick. Besides the spaghetti last night, the diamond had never really eaten things for himself. He knew that Steven liked all of the restaurants here on the boardwalk, so that meant he liked them too. Still, it just seemed odd to pick for himself like this and his human half didn’t think anything was wrong with it. It left a strange and almost concerning feeling in his form knowing now that his human half, without any memories, was thinking and knowing him to have his own opinions and even person. While the idea to be his own person was tempting, it was also just scary. He made up his mind to at least try last night, but it was still strange and new. Like learning how to swim even though the ocean looked like a raging monster. Now as his own person, will he even like what Steven liked before? Guess there was only one way to test this really.</p><p>Looking around the busy broadwalk, the young diamond took a sight of the only restaurants there to see if they were still running. Fish Stew’s Pizza looked to be running, but it was also clear that they were also working on something inside that may have been damaged in the aftermath of the injector. Crossing that off for another time, Pink turned to Fry’s old shop and saw that it was also working on what may be the ceiling or some flooring inside. Both places looked to be having a few issues, but at first glance it seemed that the Fry shop was more so stable then Fish Stew’s. Plus there was a similar face thereof blonde curls and bright hazel eyes, only this time he was slightly taller than what the diamond remembers in his database. Knowing he was more chill with the strangeness of gems and likes his human half, he pointed right at the blonde and the shop he was still helping his father run for the moment. Steven turned to see the tiny place and read what was left of the sign of the place.</p><p>“Fry’s shop?” Steven tapped his chin at the sign, smiling. “Simple fry shop with a simple but nice name. Have we been here before?” Pink nods and walks over calmly with his happy bubbly half.</p><p>Right away, the dreadlocks blonde locked his eyes on the pink glowing version of his friend holding hands with a surprisingly shy look Steven. His bright blue eyes widen in shock at the sight of two, but he tries hard enough to not show his shock and slight discomfort at the sight of yet another magical issue that the brunette keeps finding himself in. Peedee was informed by Kiki about this though. She told him and his family about how Nanefua was informed by Garnet about Steven's very unique issue. Though he honestly didn’t know how having a pink, almost robotic copy of yourself was any real issue. Every person his age would love to have something like that, but the young Fryboy was not really the jealous type. Still, he couldn’t help but be confused about how this was a problem.</p><p>Until the two came up to the front of his father’s shop and Steven seemed to be much more shy and yet bubbly all at once. “H-Hello sir! Is the shop still open today?”</p><p>Peedee sort of didn't know if he should pinch himself for standing like a frozen popsicle, or kick himself in the nut for standing like a frozen popsicle with his jaw opened for birds to nest in. Can you blame him though for the shocked, jaw dropping silence? He quickly tried to push his jaw to move and help make words again. “S-Steven,” He stuttered, shaking his head. “Why are you calling me sir? I’m only at least four months older than you.”</p><p>Though it was an honest question to the formatly, Steven’s bubbly expression slowly dropped to that of guilt and even more shyness. He rubbed his neck, standing a bit closer to the pink copy of himself who seemed to glare a bit in that stoic face at the fryboy. Peedee was even more confused now, at the glaring and his friend’s deeply ever growing guilt on his face.</p><p>“I… I’m sorry sir,” Steven said nervously to the blonde, his eyes lowered to the crumb and rusted surface of the window self. “The thing is that… I d-don’t remember you. If we were friends two weeks ago, I apologize.”</p><p>“Don’t rememb-... Oh.”</p><p>Now Peedee felt kind of like shit. This is what Kiki said about issues last week; Steven has complete amnesia of him, maybe even the whole town. That would explain the sir since it is nice to say that to strangers, still weird though since he really isn’t that much older from the brunette. Still that didn’t the pink copy of the teen now looking a mix between calm and ready to deep fry him on the spot with his eyes. He wanted to ask about that, but decided it was best not to get that thing on him or the brunette even more upset and shy so he just smiled and shrugged.</p><p>“Well that’s okay Steven. No need to say sorry.” Peedee flashed the shy new version of the hybrid a grin and gave him his hand calmly. “Since you got your brain fired, name Peter William Fryman. Call me Peedee for short please.”</p><p>That seemed to help the frown leave Steven’s face, but he was still pretty shy as he took the hand and shook it gently. He replied back, “Nice to meet you Peedee. I’m Steven Universe, but I guess you already know my name.” He chuckled and then turned to Pink. “This is Pink Diamond.”</p><p>“Wondered about that copy of you dude? Is he like a bodyguard or something,” The blonde asked honestly, seeing the opportunity.</p><p>This time though, it was the softly glowing copy that spoke up for Steven. “I’m also Steven, but his gem is half. My memories are still intact but my powers are weak right now.”</p><p>Peedee frowned in confusion at this, but then blocked the metal headache that would bring and just shook his head. “Man dude, you get into all types of problems. Though this has to be the craziest,” He stated as he pointed at the ruined hill where his temple home is at.</p><p>Steven frowned at this. “Did… Did these moments happen regularly?”</p><p>“Not in the last two years no, but you being you Steven the town always was kind of got the backlash of the crazy gem stuff you got into,” The blonde stated boringly, turning to the fryers that still worked. “Anyway, you guys want some fry bits right?”</p><p>“F-Fry what now?”</p><p>“Fry bits. These things,” He showed the two the small geese crumbs at the bottom of the fryer basket, kind of shocked to see a small recoil of the brunette while the other just seemed to not really care.</p><p>The human half frowned and shook his head a bit, his stomach suddenly feeling a bit odd at what Peedee had just told him. Still, he shook his head and tried to keep his breakfast down. “N-No thanks. Just regular fires are fine.”</p><p>Peedee frowned at this, but nodded as he started to make the fries, all while Steven just seemed to glance at the black and gery scar of the hill. This stuff happened before. All of the destruction and rebuilding the town had to go through right now, it was normal for them to do. For some odd reason it just brought a terrible bitter feeling to the teen’s chest. Was he that drustive to a place he called home? He’s only sixteen. How much can a child cause such problems to such a peaceful town?</p><p>A lot it seems, if rebuilding things became the new norm for the citizens here.</p><p>Once Peedee was down with the small bowl of fries, Pink took them and paid for the both of them as they waved goodbye to the blonde. The diamond tried eating a piece or two, feeling his body slowly rebuild its strength and glow again, but otherwise left the fries in his hand to feed to his other half. Steven ate a few slowly, quickly loving the taste of warm salty potato but still tasting the bitter lingering of guilt on his tongue. Even while sitting on a bench, watching everyone around either at work with repairs and others who are enjoying their day as they can, brought a deep sense of guilt. Thinking back a bit at the hospital, when he learned that he wasn’t fully human or gem, it just dawned on him how much trouble he brings to a town filled with people who are only half of his kind. He kind of wondered if the Steven before him ever felt like this.</p><p>Pink felt the distress of his other half, looking to see those lighter brown eyes now seeming to carry a hollowness to them. The young diamond frowned at the horrible look. He remembered a few times seeing that depressing look they shared in the bathroom mirror. Wanting to cheer him up a bit, the gem half took a warm fry from the basket and grabbed the other’s chin gently. Before Steven could let his mind catch up to him, he felt his jaw drop and a warm salty treat touch just the tip of tongue. Brown eyes locked with fuschia ones, the former getting a small pink hue to his cheeks as he chewed and swallowed the offered french fry. He smiled at his human, a pure honest smile that caused the pinkness to spread across the other’s face. Whatever dark thought his half was thinking about was definitely gone now, leaving such a pure and innocent look on his that the diamond just couldn’t help but feel his gem heat up at the sight.</p><p>Another shocking expression came to Pink’s face as he let out a small chuckle before poking the other’s nose. “No sadness. I thought you wanted to have fun My Dahlia.”</p><p>“U-Um yeah,” Steven nervously says, trying to control his blushing at that pure chuckle. He cleared his throat and spoke more calmly, “Yeah, I mean. This is technically my first time seeing the town and finally having some decent alone time to breath from the others. Just didn’t think… you know. This town would be so depressing to look at,” He explains slowly as he looked back at the many people at work rebuilding.</p><p>Pink hummed at this, whether in agreement or thought was unclear. “I would take us to Watermelon Island if the wrap pad there wasn’t destroyed.”</p><p>“The what island now?”</p><p>“Watermelon Island.” Seeing the other’s bewildered face, the pink copy just further explained. “It’s an Island in the pacific course that is filled with living watermelons we created in our image that treats us like a god.”</p><p>Steven’s eyes just widened as his jaw dropped again, the look on his face kin to utter shock. “S-Shit how many powers do we have!?”</p><p>“Apparently second fiddle to bringing back life from the dead to be honest.”</p><p>Both look like they are tense and turned towards the new voice jumping into the conversation, only for Pink to fully recognize the person before them to be none other than Lars and Sadie. They haven’t changed much compared to seeing them just about two weeks ago, but it was still just shocking to see them out at a time like this. Sadie was still supporting the light green hair dye at the ends of her rather golden blonde hair, only this time it was pinned up into a ponytail with a grey blue head scarf over the crown of her head. She wasn’t wearing her dark gothic outfit either she would wear in her concerts, but rather a simple white t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her shoulders. To match with was just simple black leggings and blue and white sneakers as well. There was also a strange tool belt around her waist and a water bottle in hand that she took a swing from, obviously had been working in most likely the repairs in town. Lars was in a similar outfit of a plain sky blue t-shirt and brown ripped jeans, tool belt around his waist and a hardhat to boot as well.</p><p>Though what Pink knew was shocking his human half was the sight of Lars’ skin tone, or rather inter color. While Sadie was just a tone lighter from Steven’s own cream color, the taller human was rather a cotton candy version of his diamond half to a tea. It just brought the young teen to jaw drop at the sight of the fuschia fluff of his mohog along with the greyish pink eyes and scar over the right one. His whole skin was cotton candy pink though, something he knew for a fact humans couldn’t do. Just the sight of him though, once he bypasses the shock and awe, seems to bring a tiny painful sting to the back of his brain. Before the other three could understand what was going on, the teen gripped his head and hissed softly at the pain, a flash of dark but noticeable image popping into his head at the sight of the other. His skin isn’t pale pink but a nice caramel tan, which was quickly palling as his mouth and right eye was covered in dark spots of red. Lifeless…</p><p>“Steven?” Sadie spoke in concern, her voice breaking the image as the stinging pain started to fade as quickly as it came.</p><p>Pink placed a hand to his half’s shoulder, his own face holding some level of concern. “Dahlia?”</p><p>“Yo dude,” Lars rushed over to help as well. “Need some water? What happen just no-”</p><p>“You’re supposed to be dead.”</p><p>Pink was for sure that his whole form glitched out along with Lars’ sudden flinch, the look of shock not forming on his face like the other two at Steven’s sudden statement. Sadie just looked very uncomfortable rather than shock, though there was definitely a factor of that in her lip biting face.</p><p>The young diamond didn’t know if they were told of Steven’s condition, but he kind of wanted to hit himself for not thinking that something as traumatic as Lars wouldn’t bring a memory back to his human half. Peedee was simple enough cause he never had a deep traumatic past with him, besides the Frybo monster, but these two were different. He could clearly remember the horrible sense of fear, loss, and despair they ran through him and his Dahlia at the sight of their friend, practically brother, dead in their arms without a single heartbeat. The small smudges of blood on their hands when they came back home from the ordeal, the many nightmares they suffered not just repeating that moment but also seeing Sadie, Jamie, and even Connie in a similar outcome if they had failed to save them. If it wasn’t for their need, utter desire to bring him back, then Lars would never have been brought back. Still, just seeing the scar on his eye and the obvious change in skin color was hard for Steven to get over after a while. It still brought flashes from time to time though, so of course it would snap some memories to the teen’s.</p><p>Rather than jump on him with questions like the gems or Peedee did though, Lars just seemed to let out a dry shadow of a chuckle, shrugging at the obviously confused brunette before him. “Yeah, I guess you can say I was supposed to be dead. Like maybe two years ago,” He said calmly as he shrugged his shoulders.</p><p>“H-How…” Steven began to ask, until he stopped himself and thought a second longer, changing the question. “Are you a gem hybrid like me and Pink?”</p><p>The older male really chuckled at this, placing a hand on his slightly tensed shoulder. A smile on his face. “Naw, I wish I was at the moment but hey a pink zombie is still pretty cool.”</p><p>And the other was back to being confused. “Zombie...?”</p><p>“Well, let me put it this way. I died protecting you and a few other friends, then you brought me back to life as close as you could. I got crazy powers and we survived, so closed done issue!”</p><p>Steven tried to process what just happened in the past two seconds, but felt the stringing coming back so he shook his away for now. “Oh.. okay.” He then nervously tried to change the topic as much as he could, giving them a hand like he did with the other sort of new friend. “I’m Steven Universe, though I guess you two already know that.”</p><p>Feeling some of the tension pass now, Sadie smiled a bit again and nodded. “It’s still nice to meet you Steven. I’m Sadie Miller, and this pink jokester over here,” She nudged her boyfriend as he stuck his tongue at her. “Is Laramie Barriga, the guy who works at the Big Donut over there.”</p><p>“Just call me Lars though,” The older male started with a friendly smirk.</p><p>Pink wasn’t fully sure if they knew what was going on with his human half right now, but was grateful that they could read enough to know that it was best to not pester him on it like Peedee. His human half seemed better too since he smiled more and wrapped an arm around his other half. “Nice to meet you Sadie and Lars! And this guy right here is my other half, Pink Diamond!”</p><p>Lars just crossed his arms as he continued to smirk. “Yeah, it’s pretty obvious since he looks like a pink version of you.” He tapped his chin a bit and hummed in thought. “I have to guess he’s your gem or something.”</p><p>“Nice to meet you Pink Diamond,” Sadie said sweetly as he came closer to shake the gem’s hand.</p><p>“Likewise, and call me Pink please.”</p><p>After the introductions, the pink skin human went right on to ask, “So what brings you here Steven? Thought you were still bed rested after the whole ordeal with another gem trying to kill you.”</p><p>Steven shrugged and scratched his cheek a bit. “Heh, well I’m not sure about that. I only have amnesia and no real bodily harm, so i thought why not just come and look around my hometown with Pink.”</p><p>“Damn Steven, sorry the place isn’t as lively as it normally is,” Sadie said apologetically. “But hey! We’re working hard and almost done with most of the repairs in town.”</p><p>“I can see everyone is working really hard. Are you two working on the pretty donut shop?” He pointed down the pathway to the most fixed building being the tiny shop with a tilled metal donut on top of it.</p><p>Lars answered that one for his girlfriend. “Yeah man. That’s the Big Donut, the best place for sugary treats in the whole town.”</p><p>“You used to go there a lot Steven.” Sadie grinned, raising a finger to the shorter teeen as she winked. “In fact, it got better since Lars took over as manager.”</p><p>Pink wanted so badly to giggle at the big shine that entered Steven’s eyes at that, his tongue already coming out to lick his lips at the thought of fresh donuts. It reminded the diamond of the innocent times him and his human half had in that shop with these two. So much as grown and changed, but still honestly not that different between the three. He just couldn’t stop watching the small layer dread and guilt wipe away from the brunette’s face to be filled with nothing but wonder and joy again. It was almost just as good as feeling it along with him. It didn’t take long though for Steven to follow the two over to the Big Donut, the older ones explaining to him the awesome new treats Lars made or the old times they had together. Pink was basically dragged by their still linked hands, but he didn’t mind the subtle squeeze as their fingers intertwined. Just having any contact with his half, his Dahlia was refreshing to the young diamond.</p><p>Pretty soon, and carefully so, Lars showed the two the inside workings of the shop, even though Pink already knew everything about the place. Still, it amazed Steven to no end to see how the different colorful donuts in the display and on the menu above. Though what was definitely different about the place, was the extra menu slot filled with a few of the pink human’s own specialities. A few different cake pops, special pumpkin bread, muffins and cupcakes, and even the most popular ube rolls. It was a small menu, but if the diamond knew anything about the taller male then he knew that it was only a peak to the massive list of pastries he had cooking up once he got his own shop. The three enjoyed the sight of the normal chill sixteen year old start bouncing and sparkling at the sight of all the pastries on the menu. There weren't any stars in his eyes, but they could tell he was still just as in awe and excited as he would have been when he was twelve. Knowing the back was clean of most of its clutter, and the Off Colors were out helping others in much direr situations, the couple showed the two halves to the back where they could sit and hang out for a bit while they were on break. Plus, there was an extra fridge filled with Lars’ special treats in the back.</p><p>Steven, still bouncing like a kid in a candy store, said happily, “This place is so cute and amazing! I can’t believe you two worked here.”</p><p>Sadie chuckled, slouching on the chair with a small tired smile on her face. “Yeah well, I quit this place two years ago. Place is great, but a pain to work alone in honestly.”</p><p>“Speak for yourself,” Lars smirks as he comes back with plates and a wrapped up ube in hand, sneaking a kiss on his girlfriend’s cheek. “Dewy hardly comes to work anymore, but you don’t see me complaining?”</p><p>“That’s because the Off Colors help you without pay and you like to bake now. Don’t think I forgot how you used to be Laramie.” She teased before pinching the other cheek, which only made her boyfriend blush a deeper shade of red and pink.</p><p>Pink shook his head at the cutie display, all while his other half just seemed to smile more and giggle. “I can see why I enjoyed hanging out with you two before.” He rubs the back of his neck nervously a bit. “Sucks that I lost all of my memories about it though…”</p><p>Sadie reached over and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “It’s fine Steven. You aren’t that much different.” She then winked and punched his shoulder gently. “You’re still one of our closest friends. Neither of us would be where we are without you.”</p><p>Lars took a seat and passed everyone a plate as he started to cut the ube into four slices. He pointed his knife at Pink though before asking, “Though there used to be one of you. You like a bodyguard Pink dude?”</p><p>“...I am Steven’s gem half,” Pink answered slowly, a bit shocked that he was pulled into the conversation but none of the less answered firmly. “The gem that attacked us split us in two.”</p><p>“Damn. That must have hurt like hell.” The older male flinched a bit at that, only to be punched by his girlfriend not so gently. “Lars!”</p><p>“H-Hey it’s okay, no need to fight.” Steven raised his hand to stop the blonde from hurting the pink zombie more, shrugging as he answered the unasked question. “I don’t even remember anything that happened. Amnesia remember?”</p><p>She pouted as she was given her plate of ube, glaring a bit at her slightly sorry partner. “Yeah well… he should know better by now that the statement was rude.”</p><p>“It’s Lars, slightly rude comments and insults are his second language.” Pink stated bluntly, making Steven and Sadie stare at him slightly in shock as Lars couldn't help but bark out a laugh at the sudden statement.</p><p>“See!? This guy gets me,” He ignored the roll of the blue eyes as he armed hugged the tense diamond and handed him his plate of ube. “Anyway, hope you like the ube guys. Just made it yesterday, and I thought a taste of my famous recipe can help jog a memory,” He said cheekily, clearly joking in a friendly way.</p><p>Steven couldn’t help but let out another fit of giggles at the odd stiffness his diamond was in the hug. Once he got his own plate of the purple bread before him, the human teen grabbed his forke and cut a decent size piece. It was so soft and smelled amazing, but taking that bite was like having explosions in his mouth. The creamy sweet flavor just seems to flood his entire mouth just from a single chew. It was so delicious and mouth watering that he could feel his body hand urging him to take another bite, but it also had another switch in his mind. It was like a switch of remembrance, like he knew this sweetness and tang that just screamed Lars and perfection. No donut or cake could replace this unique flavor and importance of this roll in his mouth. The teen was so confused by this sudden feeling spreading through his whole body, clouding his mind and bursting colors through his vision. The heat inside, it was like he was suddenly getting a memory back, the feeling rising in his mind and heart. It was there like before, but instead of feeling the painful lava flood his mind, this heat was much smoother, calm and pleasant. It was like he was being put into a soft comforting blanket while also bursting with enough energy to dance with that blanket like it was a cape. He couldn’t help but gasp a sudden “Oh!” at the different sansation.</p><p>The others turned to the brunette again, worried in their eyes right away to see the sudden distant look in his eyes. Sadie was about to call out to him, but stopped when they saw his shocked look just seem to melt into a pleased and joyful smile. He chewed the rest of his bite in his mouth, swallowing happily before slamming his hands on the table with a lightened up grin. “LARS!!”</p><p>“W-Wha-What…?” Lars looked shocked by the sudden shift of emotions and shouting. “Did I make a bad batch? Steven I didn’t mean to be-”</p><p>“Shut up you goofball,” Steven cut him off again, though this time just continuing to grin as his eyes just seem sparkling once more. “How can you ever mess this up? Your ube rolls are the best ever!”</p><p>It was a nice complement, but he was still uneasy about the strange over joyness he was receiving. “Um thanks. You didn’t have to scream it though dude.”</p><p>“My Dahlia,” Pink spoke up again in concern at the sudden burst of happiness as well. He said slowly, “Are you okay? Did you have another memory relapse?”</p><p>“Better than that My Diamond!” Steven bounced happily as he placed his hands tightly on the other’s shoulder, giddy where he stood as the light in his eyes just seemed to sparkle brighter. “I… It didn’t hurt. My memory didn’t hurt this time when I ate the ube.”</p><p>The diamond eyes seem to glow brother at this as well, clearly showing happiness in them that didn’t show in his more so emotionless face. “Really?”</p><p>The human half nodded rapidly, the smiling never leaving his face as he turned back to Lars and Sadie. “I remember it! I remember when we all made this together at Lars’ house for the first time.”</p><p>“WHAT!?”</p><p>Steven just continued to smile as he felt his eyes water a bit with joyful tears. The more he felt this wonderful feeling, the more the single memory came clearer and clearer. It was like the painful pink and white lava in his brain was washed away from the memory. It was amazing, refreshing, as the memory replayed in his mind. He felt the feelings of excitement, happiness, and just pure content when making something so like this with his friends. It wasn’t just the making bit or tasting it with Sadie, but also the small friendly talk he had with Lars after she left. The memory stopped there, but it was like the two older teens before him suddenly became clearer and clearer the more he replayed it. He didn’t know much else about them, but he knew that these were his best friends, that the pink one was an amazing cook, and that night was the best night in a long time for him back then.</p><p>“I remember making the ube with you guys…” He repeated in a soft voice, looking down at the slice before him. His eyes swimming with tears. “We were laughing… having so much fun even though Sadie and I kept screwing up the steps. Heh, we even laughed when Lars and I ended up covered in the purple yams when they splattered onto the pan.”</p><p>Sadie started to smile at the memory. “Oh Steven.”</p><p>“Then when you were gone, Sadie” Steven continued as he looked at Lars. “You were getting nervous to go to… some party, but then we talked and you said you would go with us.”</p><p>The young baker just smiled at his young friend, ruffling his own pink locks as he commented, “Yeah, i was an insecure jerk back then. Still shocked that a fourteen year old had more maturity than me.</p><p>The brunette couldn’t help but chuckle a bit, wiping the unused tears. “Like I said, somewhere between summon my shield and-”</p><p>“Finding out my mom was a war criminal,” Pink finished with a small smile of his own, his voice sounded more like the others when finishing the statement.</p><p>Steven turned to Pink, the two sharing an understanding glance to one another.</p><p>Sadie then clapped her hands in what appeared to joy herself. “That’s awesome Steven! You’re getting your memories back.”</p><p>“Heh… it was only this one to be honest. All the others were more so fragments of emotions tied to the memories,” Steven explained sheepishly as he sat back down, leaving out the part of this memory having more positive memories than the last ones. Even the one with seeing a fogged dead Lars was still painful.</p><p>The blonde musician still smiled with a small shake of her head as she rebuttal with, “It’s still something right? That means they aren’t completely gone.”</p><p>He smiled more at this. Maybe she was right. Even if it might be painful to get the not so pleasant memories, just that fact that a simple dish brought back such an important one of his friendship to these two seems worth it. If he was able to get his memories back, then maybe Pink’s powers will come back. If they get their powers back, their memories back, then they would be able to help the rest of the town with the damage caused by them. It all sounds worth it to him, and Steven now wanted to make it his mission to help himself and Pink get back on track again.</p><p>With all of this in mind, Steven continued to finish his slice of delicious ube and talk with Sadie and Lars. Even though he was friends with them before it felt like he was getting to know them all over again. Learning their dislikes and likes, the fact that the blonde had a band he helped start, and even the small adventures they had when he was younger, it all just felt so surreal and amazing. Pink even joined in from time to time, but mostly just watched in content silence as the three. During the whole time though, his hand never left his human half’s own. In fact they only seem to press closer to each other the more the conversations went on. Even with the new memory and development, the two now only felt closer to each other. This day had a rocky morning, but the two couldn’t help but chat this day up as one of the most lovely ones. Though that definitely didn’t change it when a young little kid fell onto Pink’s hair, blank diamond eyes tarring into almost cold and yet naive silver ones with tufts of blonde as well in his view.</p><p>“My Diamond!?”</p><p>“Onion! Get off him!”</p><p>“How did he even get in here?”</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. The Pearl In The Mix</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“It wasn’t that bad.”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“But he was really sweet My Diamond!”</p><p>“Demon child.”</p><p>Steven just rolled his eyes at his pink copy as they walked back to the temple after a pleasant afternoon hanging out with a funny and cute child. His name was Onion, and surprisingly he was Sour Cream’s little brother. The boy was six years younger than the teen himself, which helped paint a picture as to why him and his father moved out from Vidalia’s when he was so young. The little ball of strange chaotic energy just seemed to make the human chuckle in delight while watching his diamond get very uncomfortable whenever the boy climbed onto him. Though it went too far when the tiny blonde started to lick the gem and bite him.</p><p>A very funny, eventful, pleasant afternoon indeed.</p><p>After all of that, Steven started to feel so much lighter and happier. His nightmare pushed back while he felt s pleasant buzz travel through his whole body at the one true happy memory he had just gotten with Sadie and Lars. He remembered them as his friends, and that the pink zombie could bake like a master. After their conversations, the human half learned so much about them and just felt closer to them somehow. He knew they were friends but that was all he knew, so imagine his surprise when he learned about the blonde’s rock band that he was once a part of or the fact that he and an older male went on space adventures with four other awesome pirates. The times they hung out at the Big Donut, or the time they went on an island and fought a massive invisible monster, or even how he helped the two get together to date. The more he heard from the three, the more surprised and shock on how he could ever forget these two amazingly funny people. He relaxed when he met them when he was very young with the purple gem, Amethyst, and his father took him to buy a cookie cat ice cream at ten. Lars was the only one working there at the time, but Sadie joined him not too long after.</p><p>It sucked that this one little encounter was what caused a chain of memories of these two to be fired out of his brain which only left a deep sense of guilt and frustration hidden behind his joy and excitement. It was clear to Steven now on how many normal, human friends he completely forgot about this town just because of how they met. When listening to the sweet times he had with Sadie and the Suspects, seeing the videos and hearing himself so much younger but enjoying his life, it brought just a deep sense of lost. He wanted those memories and it frustrated him that even after all of the talking he had with the two, he only remembered one event they had when they were baking. Everything else they told him was like listening to them talk about another person all together. When Onion came and showed him some hold he kept in his pocket, pulling him and Pink around to old places they hung out at, stuck a cord in his chest when he told the young child disappointingly that he doesn’t remember. Even if these anemia was gem related, it seems to also strip away everything that he did as human as well. The only memories he could recall are faint and from when he was a young toddler. Nothing else made sense to him other than his age and his diamond half.</p><p>Knowing this, Steven declared that he would get his memories back as much as he could, and if some were lost to the wind like Priyanka had warned them about, then he would make new ones with the friends and family he had. Once he saw Pink regaining his beautiful glow again, the two said bye to Onion as they started to head on home. It also made the teen smile to see how more lively his diamond was as he showed clear signs of complaining and pouting at the other’s laughter for when the young blonde bit his cheek. It was strange, but after regaining a happy memory, Pink just seemed to act more openly about his emotions. Though only when it was just the two of them, but still somewhat in public.</p><p>Seeing the glowing gem pout a bit more, Steven chuckled and pressed a small kiss to the bitten cheek. “Come on My Diamond,” He said teasingly. “No frowny face. It wasn’t that bad, and I know for a fact you don’t hate the cute little guy.”</p><p>Pink’s body seemed to glow a bit brighter at the small peck, pulling his other half closer as they continued to hold hands. He huffed a bit, but the pouting face vanished looking more into the other’s smile. “He still bit me…”</p><p>“And I will continue to kiss the boo boo away if it helps,” He declared as he kissed the cheek once more, smiling at the warm he felt spread through his whole body with the tiny touch.</p><p>This new development between the two didn’t go completely unnoticed by Steven or Pink either. After saying buy to Onion, the two just seemed to feel warmer and closer together than before. Before getting back to the Broadwalk, the human half was shocked to get a small kiss on his forehead in thanks from his diamond. The thanks was for helping him regain his strength and spending time with him which was nuts cause the two were never separated from each other and weren’t planning to ever even try. Still, it was enough for them to be reminded of what happened last night.</p><p>It wasn’t like they felt odd or thought very deeply about the kiss itself, but more so the feeling of warmth it gave the other when it was obviously just a healing factor to fix a bloody tongue. The kiss just felt right, like it was normal for them to do. In a way it just made them feel more complete than they had with each other since the day they were split. Steven wondered if it was because they were once one person, and now any contact like that just made them feel more whole, but he couldn’t say he knew for sure if that was the case. Still, he couldn’t help the urge to cuddle closer to Pink and kiss him on the cheek now. Seeing the other glow and grow warmer than before, even vibrate at times, brought a bubbling giggle to the teen to see. To him, it was cute to see his Diamond all blushing and flustered at the touches. Somehow it was just more than the wholeness he felt when they were close like this, it also just made him smile more to see his other reaction so much to it. Though he wouldn’t be surprised if he acted the same way when the gem did it to him. These feelings were scary to say the least, hard to understand, but right now he was just too happy to care really.</p><p>They didn’t reach the temple door yet though, cause Pink stopped just before they stepped on the stairs which caused Steven to stop as well. Confused, the human half spoke up. “My Diamond? Is something wro-”</p><p>He was cut off by the feeling of soft petals like lips.</p><p>His shock was overwashed pretty quickly by the buzzing warmth that made his body tremble. Pink’s eyes were locked with his own, watching his face closely as his hands moved to hold his human’s waist. It made Steven grow a soft pink hue on his cheeks and mewl in a mix of surprise and pleasure. The kiss was even better than the one last night,slower and yet tender. It was like his Diamond was just trying to memorize his mouth and facial expressions.</p><p>It was out of the blue and shocking, but Steven fell quickly lost in the connection to even think about. Instead he left the feeling and went inside of his chest to guide him as his eyes closed and he pushed back into the tender kiss. Pink watched with half lidded eyes, tilting his head slightly to the left to deepen the kiss between them. It felt amazing, warm and refreshing in a way. The diamond could tell that his human was thinking about the little healing kiss they had last night, and honestly he thought of it as well. He liked watching his half’s face twist into a look of peace and pleasure, seeing the redness of his cheeks spread to his ears and feeling the small shivered that go through his body. Plus he couldn’t help but lick the other’s bottom lip, asking to enter that sweet mouth of his. The teen’s hands started to cling to his jacket as he opened his mouth into the kiss, letting their tongues meet and intertwine. The brunette became lost in the overly sweet strawberry while the other enjoyed the still linger sweet of ube and vanilla frosting. The moans they both left out in between the kiss was enough to make them both shudder in heat.</p><p>Sadly though, the need for air was too much of Steven to handle anymore, and he pulled away from the kiss. He blushed even more to see that his Diamond was glowing a darker shade of pink, his eyes sparkling like stars were embedded into them. After taking a breath, he went to speak again only to be interrupted again by another faster kiss from his pin half. He moaned, almost fighting with himself to give in again or pull away to figure out what was going on with his Diamond to act suddenly like this. Still, the feeling of his diamond’s teeth slightly pulling on his bottom lip was amazing. He was pretty sure he moaned a bit too loud at that movement.</p><p>After another kiss, Pink finally pulled away and licked away the lingering saliva linked between them. He almost wanted to chuckle at how red his human half was from his cheeks to ears. His brown eyes though were so lost and hazed over it was like the chocolate pools were pulling him back in to taste him more, but he was stopped by a hand on his chest.</p><p>“Wha…” Steven swallowed a bit after catching his breath, his mouth tasted completely of strawberry. “What was that all for My Diamond? I w-wasn’t injured.”</p><p>Pink smiled, his hands wrapped around the other’s waist as he gave him a firm squeeze. He could tell his human didn’t realize how close they were due to his little squeak. He said softly, “I know you were not injured, but… I thought you wanted to do that again.”</p><p>“D-Do it again?” The other blushed a bit at that, watching his copy nod.</p><p>“Yes. I know you were thinking about the other one last night,” He then leaned a bit closer to his human, whispering a bit in his ear. “I also wanted to make sure you were happy… before we meet them again inside.”</p><p>Them? Oh…</p><p>Steven knew who his Diamonds were talking about which caused him to sigh. “Hopefully they can give me a break. I know they worry a lot though, and they need our help with the sick soil.”</p><p>Pink frowned, but nodded. “I just don’t want my Dahlia upset like last night.”</p><p>How can something so simply said make the brunette heat up even more. It felt like the buzz inside of him was beginning to flutter in his stomach. Giving his other a little peck on the lips, he took his hands in his again. “Well I don’t want you upset either My Diamond. Did.. did you enjoy that kiss too?”</p><p>“Very.”</p><p>With that confirmation, Steven grinned and continued to walk with his Diamond up the stairs to the door. As the two finally got up to the Temple, the teen felt his gem quickly stiffen as a broad next to him. Free hand just inches from the door and his face dropping the glow to show complete and utter fury in the eyes with a stoic face. His deep fuschia eyes were staring right into the window, causing the teen to follow his gaze where his eyes widened in slight shock at what he saw.</p><p>It was that Pearl again from last night, sitting on the couch with someone who looked to be her twin sister. She had very light cotton candy pink hair wrapped in two buns on the sides of her slightly smaller head. Her skin was pale like Pearl’s, but had a tiny pink hue to it and she wore what seemed to be a skin tight suit from his chest to her feet with a fluffy see through pink skirt over it. What shocked the teen the most though was the left eye was completely gone and rather replaced with a mirror plan shattered and cracks that spread to the rest of her face and hair a bit on the left side. The right eye though was completely okay and soft pink at it brightened and sparkled slightly at the sight of them. His eyes quickly went down to her visible stomach, seeing that instead of a belly button there was a shiny pink pearl there instead. She was a gem like the rest of them, and a pearl like the one from last night.</p><p>Steven was confused to see such a gem at his house, but even more confused at the tightness he felt in his joint hands with Pink’s. The diamond was squeezing slightly too hard and seemed to be shaking the sight of this second Pearl with the same one that attacked them last night. He didn’t know how, but the human half just knew that the emotion in his eyes wasn’t completely fear, but rage as well. As their eyes locked with the Pearls inside, the pink one stood up from her seat on the couch as the other quickly followed to stop her from moving to the door. The teen almost tripped backwards at how quickly he was jerked with his Diamond to step back from the door.</p><p>“P-Pink!?” The pink pearl said in a slightly shocked but joyful way as she opened the screen door. She was smiling at the two like nothing was wrong, her eyes completely on the pink copy of Steven. “Pearl was right about you unfusing with your human son.”</p><p>“P-Pearl wait!” the other Pearl tried to stop her and pull her back into the temple, the names being the same just confusing the boy already.</p><p>The pink pearl just shrugged off her shoulder and leaned a bit future down and slightly closer to the two, her one eye gleaming with delight as she got a bit too close to Pink’s personal space. “It’s been so long Pink. I was forsure you were gone once you gave birth to Steven though. I guess rejuvenation was all you needed to bounce back right!” She giggled and frowned a bit in confusion, her hand reaching out. “Though I wonder why you took Steven’s form My Diamond...”</p><p>That struck a nerve, but not with Pink.</p><p>Before he realized it, the pink pearl’s hand was swatted away by Steven’s own free hand. The loud clap of the smack caused everyone to freeze slightly at the move. The pink pearl quickly stepped back and stood fully up, seeming to remember her boundaries while still being deeply confused. Pink and his human were more so shocked at the latter for attacking a gem this time.</p><p>That shock though quickly turned into a sense of discomfort and small annoyance from Steven, the human glaring a bit at the second pearl as he held onto Pink’s hand like a vice grip. He turned to the other Pearl behind her, asking a bit coldly, “Who is she?”</p><p>Pearl frowned, holding the other pearl’s shoulder before pulling her back into the Temple. She answered Steven though honestly, “She’s a friend Steven. Another pearl like me who lives on Homeworld.”</p><p>“Yeah… and I only got less than half of what you just said,” He said with a deep frown on his face.</p><p>Pearl looked like she wanted to kick herself for forgetting he had anemsia, but before she could the other dumb pearl pipped up. “I used to serve Pink Diamond before I was given to White!”</p><p>Steven just seems to feel a deep unfamiliar jolt spread through his stomach. “Serve?”</p><p>“Yes! Before she became a part of you.” The pink pearl ignored the looks given to her by the others as she continued to clap her hand and say quite dreamily, “Pink was the sweetest and kind Diamond of the four back on Homeworld. I was her Pearl over eight thousands year ago before My Diamond-”</p><p>“Pearl stop.”</p><p>She was cut off again, but this time by the young diamond as he felt his human half squeeze harder and harder on the other’s hand. It was clear to Pink that Steven was trying to fight an urge to violently attack this gem which was something they just didn’t need right now. He ignored the look of shock and slightly hurt on the pearl’s face as the diamond pulled his human close, waving at the others to get inside as they followed behind. Silently, Pink pulled his still seething other to his side by the stairs while the Pearls were across the was closer to the couch. Keeping Steven firmly by his side, he firmly stated to the pink pearl, “I’m not Pink Diamond.”</p><p>Pink Pearl looked a bit shocked by this statement, but quickly smiled. “Oh Pink, I know that your memories are a bit frazzled right now,” She said in an almost soft caring voice. “Being rejuvenated does cause memory lost, but that's one of the reasons I’m here My Di-”</p><p>“He isn’t your Diamond,” Steven snapped a bit too loudly.</p><p>Pearl looked just uncomfortable and worried about something bad happening, moving to place a hand on Pink Pearl’s shoulder. “Pearl I told you, he isn’t really Pink Diamond,” She said slowly. “It’s still Steven, but split in two.”</p><p>Pink could practically hear the glare coming from his human, but only felt the tension seem to grow with Pink Pearl looking more confused and mixed with emotions as she stared deep at the short diamond. This was bad, honestly a horrible idea on Pearl’s part. The diamond didn’t even try to question where the others were in all of this since it was clear they might just be still helping with the town. Still, bringing Rose’s previous pearl here of all times wasn’t a good idea. Not only was his human having a possessive moment with him, but once more this pearl won’t be accepting of the truth as the other one. Even if that accepting meter is lower than an ant.</p><p>He had to think of something to do here. What could he even do? Protecting Steven was the only thing that was on the Diamond’s mind, but he feared that these Pearls won’t leave them alone. Instead, Pink stayed in front of his half, protecting him from the two as he looked the pearls over. Indeed, Pink Pearl had her whole left eye cracked and deemed useless, but the cracks were older. Thinking back on the events last night, Pink truly believed that these cracks on the older Pearl cut is from his former being. The original Pink Diamond had damaged her own pearl in the same destructive way as he did to their Pearl. Honestly thinking of that only brought a deep sense of uncertainty and fear. Pink had more power than Steven truly believed before. They had healing properties, they could defend and protect, slit and graceful while also connected with others emotionally. That was what he was, that’s who Steven Universe was among the gems of Homeworld. Still, he carried faint memories of screaming at White Diamond, wanting to hurt her and he screamed in annoyance at her for separating him from his human half. He remembered clearly that same annoyance in his very gem, burning, when Pearl kept screaming at him that he wasn’t a Diamond. That only meant though that he did carry destructive powers somehow, but he wasn’t sure. He didn’t have any memories of being Pink Diamond or Rose Quartz before his Steven. If they did contant powers to hurt, powers to crack gem’s like they were made of glass, then he needed to understand them. To protect his other half, to protect his Dahlia.</p><p>Keeping this in mind, a thought came to Pink as he looked up almost denterminded and stoic like at the two silent Pearls. Steven felt the soft glowing light of his Diamond turn cold slightly under his hand, bringing him to look worried and confused just as much as the pearls. The white one looked ready to defend her pearl fellow gem, glaring slightly at the young diamond as he kept his bright pink iris and white pupil eyes on the two. Pink Pearl was looking more confused as to why her sister was so tense at the sight of their Diamond, only to yelp slightly as the steven copy took hold of her right wrist and pulled her roughly down to his level. The other two gasped in shock at the fast speed of the gem, too forze with mixed to really do anything as the young gem half licked his other free hand and smacked it to the pearl’s damaged eye. It sparkled, a wave of tingling sensation passed through the two as they connected, but when his hand finally pulled away the damage of the eye was still there.</p><p>Steven frowned in confusion and stepped closer to his Diamond, seeing his half let go of the gem as he took a deep blank gaze up at the two. There was no point in trying to heal her gem. There was no crack on it to heal. This injury, if caused by his former form, couldn’t be healed through tears or spit.</p><p>Taking this in, Pink glared slightly at the pink pearl, his tone losing all emotion as he ordered, or rather demanded her, “That injury can’t be healed. Did you get it from your Diamond?”</p><p>The white Pearl tensed, but the more calmer one just smiled in an almost cheerful manner as she nodded. “Oh yes. You should know this Pink,” She pointed at her eye. “This was all your doing, but it was an accident. I was just too close to one of your silly tantrums.”</p><p>Steven paled at this. Pink caused that? No that was impossible! His Diamond didn’t do anything to her, and he knew for a fact that he never even knew this gem before. If he doesn’t know her, then of course his gem didn’t even if his memory is shot. “Pink never did that,” The brunette snapped as he glared at the gem, taking hold of his half’s hand. “My Diamond would never attack anyone until they had a reason to.”</p><p>The pink pearl just chuckled and shook her head, explaining again, “Well Pink was always a little destructive when she didn’t get her way. Having tantrums left and right, her screams could even crack the walls if she got angry enough.”</p><p>“S-She…” The teen repeated slowly, his anger subsiding as realization came to his mind at which Pink she was talking about. “You mean… my mom? Rose Quartz?”</p><p>“Yes that’s right! She did take on that form didn’t she. Honestly Pink as a silly way to take forms of anyone she pleases does she,” The pearl stated as she looked fondly at the current Pink, who just looked at her with nothing on his face. While intimidating to others, it just seems to make the pearl smile more.</p><p>“That still doesn’t explain why you are here,” Pink stated bluntly, turning to the other younger pearl in the room. Her hands curled up a bit in fists before she sighed, crossing her arms before explaining.</p><p>“If you must know… I called her here cause I wanted to talk about the crack on her eye,” Pearl answered as she let her hand flutter to her own smaller injury. “Believe me, I didn't want to believe that Rose caused her injury. I thought all Diamonds could possibly do this, and that White Diamond did that to her.”</p><p>Pink Pearl interrupted again with a smile on her face. “I told her that was ridiculous. Sure White can control and wrap the minds of gems, even her fellow Diamonds, but she could never do this to me.” Pointing at her eye as if it was just a little scratch on a cheek.</p><p>“But how could Rose cause such an injury. She’s a healer-” She went to rebuttal, only for the older pearl to chuckle.”</p><p>“Maybe after she was given Earth as a present, but the Pink I knew couldn’t even keep a simple organic plant for more than three days.”</p><p>Looking between the two pearls arguing made both halves give looks of very mixed feelings on it, more so the teen, and his gem looking more worried at his other half. With what the two were saying, as much as the teen could understand anyway, was that his mother was two very different people at one point. The real question is which one was the real one. That’s the question that got Steven looking more so at the pink tinted pearl that was still smiling and talking to the younger as if they were just friendly chit chatting. While he still didn’t like her for some odd reason, the things she was saying about his mother were things he couldn’t help but listen into. His mother caused that huge crack on her eye, the former Pink Diamond threw tantrums and destroyed things when she didn’t get her way, and she couldn’t even be responsible enough to take care of a simple house plant. For some reason, it sounded like his mother was a grade A brat.</p><p>And how far of a difference is to a brat and a lair?</p><p>Memories of the nightmare, of the voices of his former self painful and furious emotions towards Rose Quartz still whispered in the back of his rather blank mind. He knew without a doubt that if himself before the incident believed his mother to be a lair, ro cause such pain from beyond the grave, then there was without a doubt that same person back when she was still around. From what the Pink Pearl stated, she was even worse. Screaming and fighting against others, destroying things when she screamed and cried at her fellow gems. She hurt this poor gem, and even if the pearl didn’t seem to hold any anger for it, it was still a horrible thing to do. At first, he wanted, or at least thought, that he would feel some sort of denial or just an upset distrusting feeling hearing this gem ramble. Even if his memories are gone, his emotions to most things seem to react to sudden events or people.</p><p>He felt upset, cold in a way, hearing more confirmation on the type of person his mother was. Though it doesn't explain the devotion or at least respect Rose Quartz had in this house. Her painting by the stairs, her sword in his bedroom, her name and love in these gems' heart. It questioned the teen for a good second what his father possibly even saw in this woman. Pink Pearl though was smiling and acting like all the things she did was right or harmless, all while having a massive crack on her damn face.</p><p>Yup Steven for sure didn't like this gem. She just felt so wrong and eerie to him, and honestly just wanted them both gone so he can be alone with his Diamond. Though it seemed like Pink had other plans as he raised a hand to silence at least the Pink Pearl at the sight of 'her Diamond's' hand.</p><p>"Enough you two," Pink's voice was cold enough to make even his Dahlia tremble Abit at the chill. It was clear enough that the young diamond half was ticked at this point. "If my former self caused this… can it be fixed?"</p><p>The pink to tinted Pearl just frowned at this, thinking for only a second before clapping her hands together. "Well," she said. "There is The Shell. It's for customizations, redesigns, purpose structures and repairing Pearls!"</p><p>Steven tipped his head at this. “How come you haven’t gone there to get repairs on your eye.”</p><p>Pearl frowned at this, crossing her arms while being careful with her injured shoulder. “Cause it needs Diamond access in order to work, since back in Era 2 and Era 1 only Diamonds can make Pearls…” She growled in displeasure, before regaining her composer. “Plus it has been inactive for two years.”</p><p>While the teen just looked a bit blank and confused on what this gem even said in those two sentences, something the pink pearl had picked up on, Pink gave a monotone response to it. He pretty much bluntly said, “So you need me to open it for you.”</p><p>Pearl tensed at this, chewing her as the pink one just nodded in response. “Yes. We could have gotten one of the other Diamonds to help no problem, but my sister refuses to get them involved.”</p><p>“How co-”</p><p>“It doesn’t matter,” The white gem snapped before Steven could ask another question, leaving the teen and older gem to look at her in shock while the diamond just glared slightly at her.</p><p>Steven was now even more confused than before. Forget the possibility of his mother being a curel lying twit. He suddenly remembered something that these Pearls just explained to him. The fact that he was part alien and from the sounds of it, possibly royalty.</p><p>Dr. Maheswaran had told him that his memories surrounding gems or gem related events were erased from his mind, meaning his whole life past twelve was really just blank. He seems to now be eager to regain the memories he has lost, but they also seem to be coming back in jumbles and triggers. From Lars and Sadie, it was the taste of the famous ube and how the young baker was pink skinned. From the small triggers of his mother, the argument Pearl had with Pink stating his name was once his mothers. Steven and Pink now knew that his memories weren’t completely gone, just pushed back and scattered. Like he was shattered from within and now they needed to find the pieces to try and fuse back together, or at least fill in the cracks of the pieces they already had.</p><p>When two Pearls stated stuff about Eras and Diamonds, it didn’t click like the other memories, or even bring pain to his pain. Instead, a subtle feeling of confusion but similarness came to him. For some odd reason, Steven kind of knew what they were talking about but also not. He knew they were other Diamonds, but not their names or what they looked like. He knew there were in Era 3, but not what happened during this era or the one before it. When they said these words, he just felt like he should know all of this but his brain was playing dumb injury drunkness on him. A gut feeling not matching with his mind sort of speaks. He didn’t know whether to be annoyed or relieved that this was happening, since it gave clear hints that those memories will come back sooner rather than not at all.</p><p>Still, he was drawn up in a blank and now was just staring at his Diamond on what he would do about all of this. Out of the both halves, the glowing gem one still had their memories even if emotionally detached from them as he is. Steven honestly didn’t know what to do with this, but it was clear when Pink looked back at him that he was giving his human the say on what to do next. The young diamond honestly didn’t even look to care much about the bickering Pearls, but instead took his half’s hand in his and focused only on his Dahlia. He didn’t care if they were fixed or not, giving his human to say if he should help them or not. The teen, even though he wanted nothing to do with these two other gems in the room, was conflicted. Honestly it might have been easier to make his Diamond choice for them, but in the end the human half just squeezed the warm hand in his, and turned to the Pearls once more.</p><p>“If Pink helps you guys access the Shell,” Steven stated, looking mostly at the pink bubbly gem with a frown. “Will you guys be fixed at all?”</p><p>Both of them looked unsure at this, but in the end the older gem spoke up once more. “There is a high possibility! Since it is an injury. There might be a chance I will just have to reform under the Shell’s repair process,” She then turned to Pink with a devoted look. “I promise to make a form to your liking if you wish My Diamo-”</p><p>“I don’t care.” Pink made sure to cut her off before his human had another possessive fit, even though he secretly liked it he didn’t want his human distressed.</p><p>Steven gave a thankful look and asked next, “Is this place… dangerous for humans? I-I know I’m part gem, but right now…” He gestured between himself and his Diamond.</p><p>Pearl shook her head. “Oh no Steven! The place is safe for humans. It’s mostly just a small island surrounded by water, but still safe. If you want, Pink can only come with us to at least enter the Shell.”</p><p>Pink quickly stepped closer to his half and started to wrap his hands around the other’s waist. He bit back, “I will not leave My Dahlia.”</p><p>Pearl sighed at this but the Pink Pearl’s eye fell to the arms her Diamond had over Steven, her face becoming slightly perplexed and seemingly in deep thought.</p><p>“I thought as much. We can postpone this then for a later date-”</p><p>“I asked cause I want to go.” The three gems turned to Steven in slight shock, the teen shrugging with an obvious look on his face. “You guys are injured, and Pink’s healing won’t work. If the Shell can repair you, then why not just get it done and over with.”</p><p>“B-But…” Pearl looked very nervous, rubbing her arm. “Dr. Maheswaran stated that your memories shouldn’t be forced back and seeing this stuff might be too soon.”</p><p>“From the sounds of even Pink, we have never been to the Shell before. There shouldn’t be an issue.”</p><p>The white gem bit her lip, still worried about her plan not not looking to be a good one afterall. Before she could speak to try and give up on going, her older sister jumped and clapped her hands in delight. She moved forward to the two shorter people in the room, but not to touch Pink. Instead, she moved to grab Steven’s free hand much to all shock in the three.</p><p>“Well let’s go! We can take the wrap pad upstairs.”</p><p>Pink smacked her hand away, but the bubbly gem didn’t see to mind and just went to grab her sisters and pulled her up to the stair that would take them to the Dome. Steven just seemed deeply confused, but nodded to his Diamond to reassure him of wanting to go. Pink didn’t look pleased, but for his Dahlia he would do anything for him. Hopefully the trip will be short and quick so they can be alone again.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sorry for the long wait, but HERE IT IS!! The next chapter!</p><p>I wanted Pink Pearl into this cause she will be a very important character obviously. The next chapter will be in the Shell where things get... interesting.</p><p>Hope you guys High Five The Sky Today!</p><p>Xp</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. The Mission Gone Wrong</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Steven and Pink go with the Pearls to The S.H.E.L.L to see if there is a chance to get the two fixed of their cracks. The results brought up more issues than really fixing anything.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Pink Pearl was... weird...</p><p>Honestly neither Steven half could quite understand just what the overly bubbly gem was all about. The whole time they had been getting ready and heading  to The Shell, the old fashioned Pearl had started to dot on not just Pink, but his human half as well. It was strange, even to the other Pearl, to see such a shift in affection as it seemed to pour onto more of the teen.</p><p>She kept trying to hold his other free hand, something both Steven and his Diamond tried stopping as passively as possible. When they didn’t work, she then started to talk about the little things her former Pink would have done with her. They played  little games when the other diamonds weren’t looking, or sneaking in organic pets from other planets to play with before they were taken away. It was ramble that honestly that got the human half of the two listening in with awe eyes. It was stories of his mother after all, and to hear basically a gem equation of her childhood was kind of interesting. Pink didn’t seem that interesting, or he was hiding it pretty well with a bored blank look on his face. The bubbly pearl even got her younger sister gem to comment now and then on to see if she was still the silly Diamond their ex-master use to be. While it was very informal, everyone besides the chatty gem could feel the undertone of something unpleasant about all of this. Still, that didn’t stop the pink pearl from latching on the human teen, even more so when they entered The Shell.</p><p>Steven, while feeling like he was in a small tug of war between his Diamond and this looney Pearl, was honestly kind of excited to see this place with his own eyes. This would be the first gem related place he had ever seen since he lost his memories. Even though his doctor Priyanka told him and his father that these memories should just take time coming back, it made the teen almost giddy in his shoes to finally get to see something from his gem culture. Sure the old Steven knew almost everything that needed to know about gems, even going to Homeworld and was a prince for a short while, but this was new for the amnesia Steven. Plus his older self never got to see the Shell which brought a sense of special pride and victory. This was his own memory. His… not Steven’s, but Dahlia’s.</p><p>When they finally reached The Shell, the place was completely dark and slightly cold. It made Steven shiver since he was only wearing a blue t-shirt and black jeans. He quickly leaned closer to his more warm gem half who was being a nice glow stick for the gang. Still, the younger Pearl made her gem on her forehead glow to turn into a personal flashlight. Pink Pearl just stayed by the two shorter member’s sides with a smile on her face. There was honestly nothing in this massive room except glass, blue, green, and white tiles. It was strange to the two Steven halves until Pearl walked forward off the wrap pad to a small single pillar in the middle of the room, there was a handprint on it like a control panel. </p><p>Or at least that’s what Pink taught before pulling his human half to gently follow him off the wrap pad and towards the panel. Steven commented softly, “This place is pretty cold and bare.”</p><p>Pink Pearl quickly jumped in while skipping beside the two. “Well like my sister said, this place has been abandoned for two years now. Before that it was always filled with so many pretty pearls and their owners coming in to chat and hang out sometimes.”</p><p>Steven frowned a bit in the first half. “Pearls were slaves?”</p><p>In reaction, only Pink and the other Pearl seem to flinch a bit at this but before they could speak again, the older Pearl nodded with a thoughtful. “More so we were playmates, pretty things to flash show off to other higher ranking gems.” She then gave a silly serious face as she did the diamond pose. “But we were much more than just toys. We make sure that our owners are in their top shape. i know what the Diamonds, us pearls under their care, were highly respected.”</p><p>“I see…” Steven mumbled at this, but then turned to the nother Pearl to see her distant and grim look. For some reason, it brought a twisted feeling to his gut this. “I can see why my past self wanted that removed then. No one should be slaves. They should have a choice.”</p><p>Pearl looked shocked at this, but Pink just seemed to glow a bit while still keeping a blank look on his face, though his Dahlia could tell he was pleased with this answer. Pink Pearl had gone silent again, her eyes flashing an odd emotion in them before she smiled more firmly and with understanding. </p><p>“Well…” She said softly with her hands dropped in front of her. “You always knew what was best Steven. It’s why you took charge in Era 3 after all. Many Pearls are happy now with the choice to stay with their owners or not.”</p><p>That just seems to make the protective feeling in his chest dwindle away to a more so conflicting and uncomfortable feeling to be around this gem a second longer. Still, it left the human to think a bit on what she just said. Steven was the reason this place was empty. From what she said, he freed the Pearls from being slaves and instead chose to be their own person or continue to be by their masters’ side. While that did seem pretty cool, it still brought a sense of confusion to the teen. One, that didn’t explain as to why more Pearl wouldn’t come here or make more of their kind. Two, why on earth was a fourteen year old left to control a full on empire or something? Where were the other Diamonds? Why was he back on Earth when he was practically controlling and ruling a whole ass kingdom in space.</p><p>The thoughts made his brain thorb and the flashes of pink and white come back in his vision, but the teen ignored it. Screw his brain injury, he wanted answers. Even if Steven passed out afterwards. </p><p>All that aside, Pink moved to place his free hand on the panel which brought the place to bloom to life. Steven gasped at the sight of the sea lantern lights to glow a soothing soft blue color as a little chirm was heard through all around. Pink Pearl was clapping her hands and bouncing up and down while the younger one just held a more so small and nervous smile. The place was carved and sparkling with an unearthly type glow. The human teen couldn’t help but smile a bit at the sight of the massive dark blue doors that wrapped around the walls, seeing the same shell shape craving them but somehow having their own swirl and style to them.  As the floor and ceiling finished glowing up around them, a soft voice was heard from above the door before them. </p><p>
  <em>{Greeting Pink Diamond.}</em>
</p><p>“It knows your name,” Steven mumbles, but Pink didn’t make a nose when he heard it.</p><p>
  <em>{I am SHELL and your guide through The Reef.}</em>
</p><p>“I thought this place was called The Shell.”</p><p>Pink Pearl smiled and nodded. “Yes it is. It is known for those two names, but most of us just call it the shell cause of her.”</p><p>Steven looked thoughtful at this, “Oh, then how do we get inside?”</p><p>This time, the other Pearl finally stepped in to speak. “We would need to get into the medical care center. That’s the only place where we might be able to fix out cracks.”</p><p>Pink nodded at this and spoke, “I need to get into the medical care center. Two … of my pearls are injured with cracks.”</p><p>
  <em>{Understood. Please Pink, follow the illuminated path to the care center.}</em>
</p><p>The older chippy gem started to have a guilty and shy smile on her face. “P-Pink… you two didn’t have to come all this way for such a trivial thing.”</p><p>The Diamond ignored her and began to walk forward with his half, the other two Pearls following. Steven could tell that his gem half was just ready to get this over with. If anything, he could feel the tightness of their joined hands that Pink was tense. He didn’t understand why he was so tense and in a hurry, but he didn’t want his Diamond to feel this way. He tried calming him down with a wrapping his arms around his and leaning closer, getting odd looks from the original Pearl but got results in relaxing his diamond half. </p><p>Once the door opened to the four, they were blasted with even more bright and sparkling lights of blue, green, and even slight violet. It left Steven and even Pink gasping and eyes widening at the sight of hall. It was massive, just like the entrance area, but it was lined up with tones of statues, pillars, and sparkling holograms of Pearl all around. It was like walking into a museum for Pearls or even just a mall just for purchasing items meant for Pearl. As they stepped inside the hall, there were gifted with the hologram pearls posing and even spinning as if to show off their outfits. Some even had different hair styles and slightly different body structures. As they walked past, some of the holograms looked to wave or even wink at the two males. It made the two look at them with strange awe but otherwise continued to walk along with the Pearls.</p><p>{<em>Please feel free to take your time looking through the latest offerings and accessories and appearance modifiers as we make our way to the care center.}</em></p><p>Steven couldn’t help it, pulling his gem slightly to look at the different outfits and holograms with a glow in his eyes. Pink was shocked by this a bit, but figured that his Dahlia was always known to enjoy shopping even before they split. It was a nice replacement he guessed. The pink pearl quickly pulled away from her younger sister to look at the fan section and get lost in the pretty displays just like his human half. There was even more than just outfits and the holograms. The halls also showed, as Shell said it, accessories. There were ribbon wands of all different colors and designs, even a place to customly make your own to gift to your pearls. There were also hand fans of all different sizes and colors of the same variety. In fact it was the same display that pulled his human half and the pink pearl the most, the two seeming to smile in awe at the display. </p><p>“Look at all of the pretty fans!” Pink Pearl clapped her eyes as she was glued to a small pink and gold one with the ruffles. She turned to Steven with a beaming smiling before saying, “Aren’t they just gorgeous? Honestly these are my second favorites to the ribbons.”</p><p>Steven was looking at a blue one that was pretty massive and hard flower designs on it, nodding when the Pearl spoke up. “I can why. They remind me of an anime I watched with Pink. What other accessories are there besides fans and ribbons.”</p><p>The gem answered happily, “Oh tons! Most are for entertainment purposes since Pearl were known for being mostly pretty toys. Juggle balls, ribbons, fans, capes, jewelry, and even some weapon designs like spears or swords.”</p><p>“Swords?” He tipped his head in confusion. “I thought Pearls were nothing more than slaves.”</p><p>“Well swords were a new accessory option back in Era 1, and not a very favorite among the higher ranking gems,” She said informative, her smile never fading. “They were used for balls as to watch Pearls do special dances with their blades. Again not very liked among gems, but the Diamonds did enjoy them, including Pink.”</p><p>That’s when the other Pearl stepped in with a fond smile of her own. “I remember. Rose gave me my own spear as well.”</p><p>Steven and Pink were shocked to learn that she was given her spear by their mother. Pink Pearl just chuckled at her sister with a gentle comment. “That’s so amazing sis. I hope she trained you well. It would be a shame to stab yourself with it when you fight it.”</p><p>The three turn to look at the gem with confused mixed expressions. While Steven was more shocked, the other two were of utter disbelief. Even though the tone she used was more so innocent and cheerful for her fellow pearl, the words were almost like getting backhanded and insulted. It sounded almost like she was insulting her sister Pearl even though before they got here she was acting almost overly clingy. Pink was pretty shocked and even more distrusting of this crazy gem, while Pearl looked ready to snipe back at her older fellow gem butr held back. The chippy pearl must have felt the room, or completely ignored it, cause she just clapped her hands and continued with a perk about owning a ribbon wand instead of a silly spear. Seriously what was up with this gem.</p><p>Steven didn’t seem to feel the room between the two pearls, turning back to the fans as she leaned forward to touch the soft silk of the blue one. Pink watched his human half eyeing the fan with sparkling eyes. No stars, but he could tell his Dahlia was interested in the fans on the wall. It was just so cute to watch him so glued to something so silly. Then again, the young Diamond felt like Steven before all of this would be just the same way. When fused together, it was obvious that as Steven they loved fashion. It was kind of one of the guilty pleasures that their old self was into, but with all of the gem issues and politics they never invested into it. Sure they got the outfit of a pink ject and black star shirt, enjoying the new favorite trend of black, it never went future then that. Their old self was planning to get into it though before Spinel showed up. Trying on different clothes, both male and girly in the human eyes, even design their own pieces. It was a plan that was just laying in the back in the dark due to everything else. Little Homeschool, Homeworld, missing Connie at her camp, still dealing with their mother’s past. There was hardly going to be enough time to enjoy this. </p><p>But now, seeing his human no longer worried with their burden was uplifting. He is pretty sure that his Dahlia didn't even know that they had a love for fashion like this when they were one, but seeing him so engrossed with the fans and different hologram outfits around him was pretty self telling. It made Pink give a thoughtful hum before turning to the two still injured pearls. </p><p>Seeing their scars brought the diamond back to the reason why they were here, turning back to his human to whisper softly in his ear, “Come on Dahlia. We still have to see if the pearls can be fixed.”</p><p>Steven blushed a bit and broke away from the fans again, looking a bit upset but quickly nodding. “Right. Is the place right down the hall?”</p><p>Steven took Pink’s hand as they followed the Pearls to the care center. Once they reached the open way for the care center, they heard Shell speak up once more. </p><p>
  <em>{Welcome to the care center. We have everything here to update and repair any Pearl.}</em>
</p><p>The room was just as big as the entrance way with nothing hardly inside, however the center of the room had a shell shaped pad that seemed to glow a soft blue hue. Both of the Pearls went over to the pad, making Pink and Steven follow behind. In silence, the Pink Pearl stepped onto the pad with a bright grin on her face. The young human teen watched in awe to see small blue lines glow around the pearl and travel up and down her body as if scanning her. All the while the Shell continued to speak. </p><p>{<em>Scanning Processing… I am sorry, there is nothing I can do for this Pearl. Please place the next Pearl.}</em></p><p>All four of them gasped in shock and disbelief. Nothing it could do? What did that even mean? Their questions only seem to be more apparent when Pearl stepped on the platform who got scanned for repairs. There was the processing, but then the straight up deniel to fix her. Steven was looking at the two in deep confusion, for Pink it was an unreadable look on his face. The two Pearls looked at one another with mixed expressions of confusion and fear of what will become of them not with the cracks in their forms. The younger white pearl tensed once she saw the pinker one soon smile as if trying to hide the mask of hurt in her only seeing eye, her eyes widening in horror to see the cracks in her left eye spread further. </p><p>Steven and Pink saw this too, the former stepping over in worry. “P-Pearl, your crack got bigger!” </p><p>Pink Pearl touched her eye, the smile on her face faltering just a bit but quickly widened in a flash. She kneeled down to the teen and giggled, “Oh it’s fine Steven. I didn’t even feel it.”</p><p>“But why couldn’t The Shell fix you,” He shook his head as he looked over to the other Pearl and her cracked shoulder. “I thought it said it could heal any damage to Pearls.”</p><p>Just then, the shell answered the human teen as if to fix the confusion. {Their physical forms show damage but their pearls are perfectly fine.} Both Steven and Pink look at the Pearl’s gemstones, seeing that indeed their stones were just as gleaming and perfect as before. {these injuries must have been so impactful that it continues to manifest even after the pearls were repaired}</p><p>“So…” Steven mumbles sadly, thinking back as he looks at his Diamond. “The wounds are psychological.” </p><p>Pink Pearl stood fully back up, dusting off her dress as she clapped her hands together with a sigh. “Oh well. Pink was always known to have such a temper back in the day. Her power is so massive, even the damage she caused can’t be healed by her own help.”</p><p>This remake caused Pink to tense a bit, looking over at the damage he caused to Pearl’s shoulder. Even though he felt no attachment to her, he knew Steven would have been guilty if he had his memories, causing the diamond half to carry some of that guilt. The wound couldn’t be fixed now which meant that Pearl will forever yhad those cracks. </p><p>Pearl though reacted negatively to her sister’s remark, stepping closer to her with an irritated tone. “Must you keep insulting Rose. It’s not like she was worse than the other Diamonds. These cracks are just accidents.”</p><p>Pink Pearl just looked slightly shocked at this, only to shake her head. “Oh no, I completely agree that these were accidents, but you have to agree that Pink can be pretty scary when she wants to be. She could put White’s glaring smile to shame with her screaming.”</p><p>“Please if anything, Rose was an angel-”</p><p>“More like a raging Jasper fusion,” The pink pearl chuckled. “She got so tired of destroying Blue and Yellow stations and thrones demanding her own colony, she decided to go to White. Of course said that to her taturms she was unfit to lead her own colony yet.”</p><p>Pearl glared in complete fury. “Are you kidding me! She was an amazing leader! Yellow and Blue kept treating her like a child!”</p><p>“And yet she was a great leader at leading war and destruction. Just like when she accidently damaged my eyes, but of course I was just standing too close when she threw her little fit.”</p><p>“W-What….”</p><p>The three gems turn back to Steven, seeing the teen paling in a very unhealthy shade of white. It took Pink a lot quicker to realize what was causing his human to look horrified like this, making the diamond rush to his side. </p><p>Pink Pearl just smiled brightly at the two male halves, holding her hands in front of her. “ Everyone on Homeworld knew Pink to be the most violent Diamond of the four, so honestly if I wasn’t being controlled by White Diamond for over 8000 I would have told them right away who Rose Quartz was in that war. The fact that your new Pink cracked my younger sister's gem is just traits made engrained to the gem he holds.”</p><p>Steven trembled within Pink’s hold, but being of anger or fear was hard to tell. “S-She...”</p><p>“I keep telling you that it just doesn’t make sense,“ Pearl said in deep confusion, moving to stand between her and Steven in a protective manner. “Rose wasn’t destructive, she was a healer. She didn’t have tantrums, she kept her feelings to herself.”</p><p>Pink Pearl just chuckled at her younger sister, shaking her head. “Oh Pearl, are you sure you belonged to the same Pink cause the Diamond I knew couldn’t keep a secret to save her gem.”</p><p>“Are you kidding me!? If anything you are talking nonsense. Rose was too good at keeping secrets, even from me.”</p><p>“Oh really,” The smaller pearl smiled in a more mischief way, leaning closer to her sister gem. “You believe you know our Diamond more than me? Isn’t there a little Spinel who would more than likely take my side in what I’m saying right now.”</p><p>Pearl frowned, shaking her head. “That’s different!”</p><p>Pink Pearl just giggled and shrugged. “Not really. Pink saw Spinel as a toy just like me, but at least she treats her toys nicely, but even Spinel can tell you the times she destroys the garden in taturms and screaming fits. Spinel and I had to fix it so many times we made a silly game out of it.”</p><p>“ENOUGH!!”</p><p>Both of the bickering pearls turned sharply back to Pink, his eyes blazing in deep magenta pink as he glared daggers at the two. Even though the young diamond’s face looked blank at first, it was clear there was deep frustration and rage that can shatter a gem on sight. It made the once bubbly pink pearl whimper and hid behind the younger Pearl, both looking pretty frightened of the gem knowing what ye was capable of. Though the anger of the diamond was justified once the youngest white gem looked at the human teen in his arms. </p><p>Steven was straight up shaking in Pink’s arms. His eyes wide and unseeing as his breathing picked up at an inhuman speed. Pearl gasped, knowing this to be a quick way to a panic attack. Pink knew this too, quickly trying to ground his human to the present by failing. The human teen was trapped, struggling as flashes of pink and white filled his vision and the horrible molten lava heat consumed his head. Everything was hurting him, confusing him, and making him angry. He couldn’t figure out where he was, who was holding him, or what was going on just seconds before. The only thing he knew was the horrible flashes of heat and pain shooting through his mind as he tried to take in everything he heard from those bickering pearls.</p><p>War. It was the trigger. That much Steven knew before the pink and white took him over. His mother started a war on Earth, his mother did something horrible and caused destruction. His mom, Rose Quartz… Pink Diamond was a war criminal. He knew this but he didn’t know this. He was angry at this but didn’t know why. He was proud of this but didn’t get how he ever could be. She fought for earth, but she caused millions of gems to fall to their death. Rose defeated the diamonds, but she left them believing they lost their own. Rose fought for freedom of all gems, but bubbled Bismuth. She shattered Pink Diamond, but she was Pink Diamond.</p><p>Too much. Too much! everything is just TOO MUCH!!</p><p>“D-Dahlia!”</p><p>“Steven!”</p><p>“S-Stop it!”</p><p>Just then, Pink was thrown back by his human half which caused the Diamond to tense and look back at his struggling human in worry. His stoic face crumbled down to show that twist of concern as his human gripped his throbbing head before he glared at the Pearls.</p><p>“S-Stop it! Stop it!,” Steven screamed, his eyes flashing with a spark of pink in them. “I can’t deal with one more horrible thing she did anymore!</p><p>Pearl and Pink‘s eyes widened at this, his voice sounded different. The way he said Mom sounded different. Almost like… like…</p><p>“Steven…” She mumbled in shock. “You remeb-”</p><p>The teen didn’t listen and just kept screaming in blind rage. “I don’t want to hear about it! I don’t even want to think about it!!”</p><p>“S-Steven wait-”</p><p>“I just want ALL OF THIS TO STOP!!”</p><p>Pink’s form glitched a bit at the sheer force of his human’s scream. Though his torturous and furious scream broke nothing around them, the sheer emotion behind left Pink Pearl sobbing and kneeling on the floor as if she was protecting herself from the blow waiting to come. The crystal gem member just stood protective yet she wasn’t sure for who at this point. Instead she looked sloley at the teen now panting before the two skinny gems. His brown eyes seem to flash sparks of magenta within the pupils, each sparke causing a twitch to the panting boy’s body like he was being shocked. There was a few seconds of pure silence besides the pink pearl’s whimpers and Steven’s panting. Once that minute of silent passed, it was like the rage melted off the pale boy’s face, leaving him looking confused, shocked, and worn out. Almost like someone flipped the switch.</p><p>“M-My D-Diamond…” Steven felt drained, like the water that was boiling over in his mind suddenly dropped in ice bath levels and slipped past his fingers. His legs began to buckle down and collapse under him as he reached for his gem half. “W-Why… I… n-need..”</p><p>Pink was quick to come back to his human’s side, catching him just in time. He whispered in a soft and concerned voice, “Dahlia…”</p><p>Whatever happened to his human, it was beyond not normal, even by their standards. It was like the old Steven, the one he was once one with, broke through the fog in his mind and just snapped. Pink knew if they were still fused then the whole Shell would have been littered in cracks and rubble. Maybe it wasn’t crazy to get his destructive powers out of the blows when he snapped at Pearl, Perhaps their whole form was meant to use them at this point. </p><p>Still, the violent reaction and the backlash was obviously taking a toll on Steven. His pale face looked slightly clammy. He was shaking all over and felt honestly very cold. This terrified the diamond, pulling him his arms as he let his warmth try and bring the color back to the already pale skin. Pink knew his human needed to get back to the Temple to rest. Besides the Shell couldn’t fix the Pearls anyhow so this was a pointless mission. The short gem went to lift his teen into his arms to carry him back to the wrap pad until the room turned red all around them.</p><p>
  <em>{I am terribly sorry for the trouble these defective Pearls have brought you. For Pearls who exhibit problems with this server… rejuvenation is required.} </em>
</p><p>“What!?” Surprisingly, it was Pink who shouted this outloud. Steven seemed to understand what it meant, looking up in horror to see the Pearls still standing on the plate form before the bottom opened up to encase them into a shell. </p><p>{<em>When the process is complete, they will obey you without fail.}</em></p><p>The two Pearls shouted in shock and started to bang their fists against the encased shell. Pink and Steven rushed over to the shell to break them free, but finding it just as hopeless as the two gems inside tried. </p><p>Steven screamed, “We got to get them out of there!”</p><p>“Shell, as a Diamond I command you to let them go,” Pink ordered in a more controlled but booming voice.</p><p><em>{Do not worry Pink Diamond.}</em> The Shell above said in her same chrippy monotone. {<em>Your pearls are about to become better than new. feel free to watch their progress on the view screen.}</em></p><p>Just then, a hologram screen popped right in front of the two male halves, showing the Pearls inside. Pearl was trying to open up the shell with her spear as Pink Pearl looked to be hugging herself and almost content with what is happening. Both Pink and Steven’s eyes widen in horror though as the hexagon screen shows the shell lighting up inside and shocking the two gems with pink electricity. The human teen began to scream along with the pearls who started to conflus and spasm in pain, their screams much louder as they filled the whole room. Steven felt the rush come into him again, pushing past the screen to bang his fish on the shell. Even though he couldn’t break it open, that didn’t stop the human teen from banging or break it himself. He knew what was happening to them. He knew the pain and it terrified him that gems went through this and this building had it built in.  </p><p>This was wrong. This was so wrong and he needed to get them out!</p><p>“Pink! Help me!!” Steven turned back to his Diamond, tears building up in his tired but panicked eyes. He saw on the screen that the Pearl’s gems and bodies began to glow pink with white spider cracks. “No!! Shell Stop! Stop!”</p><p>Pink rushed to help his distressed human, glowing a harsher shade of pink as he raised his fist and punched at the shell. Nothing happened, but Steven felt the air around the impact from his side on the shell. His gem half punched again, harder, and this time the whole room shook. The young diamond had a look of pure and unfiltered rage as he started to throw punch after punch on the hard case. After about the fourth punch though, one strong enough to even had the Pearls fall to their knees, did the shell encase begin to crack. </p><p>
  <em>{Pink Diamond. Please step away from the rejuvenation shell at once.}</em>
</p><p>Pink ignored her, punching once more and finally getting a hole.</p><p>
  <em>{Error, damage to the rejuvenation shell. Defence system activated.}</em>
</p><p><em>Pink kept was quick to act, pushing himself to encase the whole area, </em>including Steven, in his diamond shape bubble shield as the walls of the shell began to open to show long thick tentacle-like machines with sparkling diamond tips at the end of them. There looked to be twenty and all aiming at the bubble as they began to fire lashes at the shield.</p><p>It almost left Steven in awe, but even he knew Pink was using too much power as it is. Glaring with determination, he rushed over to Pink and shouted, “Pink! Let me help!”</p><p>The Diamond half looked at his human half, almost debating but then heard the screams of the Pearls continue and knew there wasn’t time to think. Nodding, he summoned a bubble spike to Steven’s right hand as the two smirked and started to punch away at the shell. Pretty soon though, as they started to get a decent hole in, the glow Pink once had started to dim as the dome started to crack under the onslaught of lasers. The two boys continued to fight their way through the shell’s hard exterior, shouting through the screams of the gems now glitching inside and crumbling to their knees. A laser had made it through the barrier, hitting the human half square into his back just as they broke far enough in to force his hand into the shell. His blood chilling scream in pain was enough to bring all the other gems to shout in horror. “STEVEN!”</p><p>Pink Pearl was still on her knees in tears, but her younger sister just started to get back up and rush to the tiny opening the shell provided. Her sky blue eyes fell right to Steven as she gazed in horror and motherly concern at the young teen now on the floor in pain and exhaustion. She saw Pink quickly want to turn around to save his human half, but it was clear he was struggling to even move and keep the barrier up and running. It was already crumbling down on top of them. If this kept up, she and her older sister would rejuvenate and the two boys will be hurt in the process of the Shell’s defence system. She had to act, she had to push and most important she had to help Steven. She hated this. Pearl knew deep down that she still felt disgust and wrongness saying this, but she had to. She just had to…</p><p>“P-P… P-Pink!”</p><p>The diamond half looked back at the shell, seeing Pearl staring at him with pleading eyes. Her hand was reaching out to him, asking to be saved. He couldn’t do that now though. His Dahlia needed him. Steven was hurt, and Steven came first before anything else. Pink was going to ignore her, to turn and heal his human’s wounds, but the white gem shouted once more as her form started to break apart. </p><p>“P-Pink please,” Pearl shouted, screaming through her pain but her focus solely on reaching the emotionless diamond. “Y-You… Y-You know there’s only one way to save him! H-Help me save him!”</p><p>Pink’s eyes continued to look covered in mostly panic for his human, but soon his eyes widened in realization of what the pearl meant. Still, his mind was overloading on what to do. He didn’t want to be separate from his human, much less to that. No, if he would do it with anyone, it would be his Dahlia. To do it with any other gem included, felt wrong and tingly in a bad way. He was incomplete without Steven, any other would never be enough to fill that place. The diamond half didn’t want to touch her, let alone do what she was suggesting. Still, he felt his power draining rapidly, his own form about to come undone to the pressure. His dome was breaking and useless now, and his half was passed out at his feet. There wasn’t much time, and he can’t break out of here alone even with all of his magic draining him and poofing afterwards. Knowing in his mind what was the best outcome, the best option in his seas of confusion and conflicting wants and purpose, he stood back up and grabbed hold of Pearl’s hand.</p><p>He glared at her, feeling the horrible burning sensation of the rejuvenator crawling up his light form, said bluntly, “He gets out.”</p><p>Pearl glared back, nodding as their gems glowed and their wants mixed into a bright furious shade of cotton candy pink. The shell and broken pink dome brusted. Shell herself screeching throughout the halls.</p><p>
  <em>{WARNING! UNIDENTIFIED ENTITY! CONTANT AND CAPTURE!} </em>
</p><p>A new form stood tall, four fours blazed with fury as the umbrella in hand bloomed out and they attacked.</p><p>When Steven woke back up, it was to a sea of stars and Pink Pearl by his side. His head was pounding, his thoughts blurry, but even the teen could remember that he was at the Shell when it attacked them and he got blasted in the back. Now though, his back only felt sore but otherwise healed, and he wasn’t on cold glass floors but instead still slightly warm white sand.</p><p>“W-Wha…” Steven groaned as he moved to sit up but ended up causing himself a headache. He held his head in hand and looked over to Pink Pearl who was kneeling by him with a pleased smile. “P-Pearl? What happened? W-Weren’t at the-Where’s Pink!?”</p><p>Before the human half could panic, Pink Pearl grabbed his hands carefully on her own, silent and placed a finger to her own lip to tell him to be silent as well. Steven just looked deeply confused and almost like the gem had lost her whole sense of mind, but turned to where the pink gem pointed at to see someone standing just three feet away from them. They had pale rainbowish like hair, just slightly past the ears  but in loose wavy curls. Their skin was an odd but soft looking pastel pink as they wore what looked to be dark pink shorts and sparkling cotton candy slippers, all matching in a pink jacket tied to their waist and a blue chop top jacket they were wearing. Oddly enough, their outfit looked familiar and yet different in ways. They wirled what looked to be a blue and dark pink umbrella in hand, the handle of it glowing and sparkling in a way that reminded him of his diamond.</p><p>Wait… Pearl… Pink…</p><p>“Rainbow Quartz…” Steven whispered out in awe, just around the same time that the fusion turned around to stare at the human teen.</p><p>Their eyes were different though from what Steven remembered them to be. He remembered this gem, this fusion. He remembered this gem used to be him, that they were a product of him and Pearl, but this one was different. Different in the four eyes that stared back. Instead of top blue eyes with a bottom pair of light brown. </p><p>These four were pink and completely diamond shaped.</p><p>Their voice, Rainbow’s voice… glitched.</p><p>
  <strike>
    <em>“STeVeNnNNNnnNnN!?”</em>
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